Dusk to Dawn
by heapscool
Summary: Sakura had three questions. One: Why was she naked? Two: Why was she naked in Kakashi's bed? Three: What the hell happened last night? After waking up in a place least expected, Sakura and Kakashi set out to find the answer to all three questions. But there's one question they haven't thought of yet: Do they even want to know? Rated M for smut and language.
1. The Morning After

The bed was warm and surprisingly more comfortable than usual and Sakura couldn't help but groan at the delightful feeling of her joints popping as she stretched her naked body. She heaved a sigh of contentment as she rolled onto her stomach, throwing a toned arm over the pillow at her side.

Except it wasn't a pillow.

Jade green eyes shot open as her arm dropped onto warm flesh, her hand splayed over smooth ridges of taut, bulging muscles. She gazed in shock at the body next to her, shamelessly admiring the scarred and tan skin that stretched tightly over an impressive build. The crinkled white sheets were thrown over the body's hips, obscuring the area from below his clearly visible V-line to the middle of his athletic thighs from view. As she raked her eyes upwards, she noticed a familiar tattoo on his left shoulder.

An ANBU tattoo.

_Oh no. _Sakura thought. _Oh no, oh no, oh no._

Her heart thumped in her chest, so erratic that it was bordering on painful and she was scared that the person next to her would feel it rattle in her rib cage. Biting her tongue to keep from screaming, Sakura fearlessly looked into the startled mismatched eyes of the man next to her.

Sakura stared at him for what felt like hours, slowly taking in the unusual sight of his unmasked face. Even after all these years, this was the first time she'd ever seen his face, and by God, what a face it was. She studied his nose, surprisingly straight and flawless, event after all his years of being a shinobi. Her eyes lowered to his lips, a feature she had never seen before.

_No mole or duck lips. That only leaves buck teeth._

His lips were such an alluring shade of pale pink that she had to bite harder into her tongue to keep from blushing. The bottom lip was just a little fuller than the top, giving him a permanent pout. Tearing her eyes away from his mouth, she observed his narrow chin and angular jaw line, only lightly covered with a day's worth of stubble.

Something dark and purple caught Sakura's attention, and she unwillingly took her eyes away from his attractive face to his throat. And on it, rested a hickey.

Sakura could no longer keep herself from screaming as she jolted up into a sitting position, her knees pressed together with her feet facing outwards with an accusing finger wiggling in Kakashi's face. She, _Sakura, _had given _Kakashi-sensei _a hickey! They were lying _naked _in a bed, one that wasn't hers as she'd come to realize, _together!_

_What the fuck? _Sakura thought, and she was just about to say it out loud when Kakashi was no longer lying on the bed in front of her. Instead, she found him pressed against the corner of the room furthest away from her; the sheets he had pulled away from her were wrapped tightly around his narrow waist. "_Sakura?" _

_Clearly. _Sakura thought bitterly as she glared at Kakashi from across the room. "What are you doing here, Kakashi-sensei?" She demanded with her hands on her hips, all initial shock and fear gone as she stared at her sensei and team leader.

"What am _I _doing here? This is _my _place, what are _you _doing here?" Sakura noticed Kakashi's hands tightening in the sheets around his hips and she saw him regard her strangely before looking away, his face clouding over awkwardly.

Sakura raised her eyebrows at Kakashi's uncharacteristically restless and distressed demeanor and looked down at herself in worry. Her body was completely covered in finger and hand shaped bruises and- she blushed furiously- _hickeys. _"Oh my God," She whispered as she threw an arm over her breasts and squeezed her thighs closer together to cover the area between them.

_This is so embarrassing. _She thought, as she felt her skin heat up so much that she thought she was going to melt. She consciously shied away from his sideways glance at her and moved up the bed so she could push her back flat against the bed head. Grabbing a pillow, she hugged it to the front of her body, letting out a nervous laugh.

"We didn't… did we? I mean… last night, we couldn't have been that-" She started, resisting the urge to twiddle her thumbs and bite out a nervous laugh.

Kakashi shook his head absurdly, "No, of course not. We must've just… fallen asleep. Right?" His deep voice, normally smooth and velvety, cracked at his question. He pressed his back further into the wall, and Sakura couldn't help but blush at the way his muscles tensed as he did so.

"Right." Sakura agreed, nodding her head fiercely. Though, something in her gut told her that _'falling asleep' _wasn't the only thing they did last night. Desperately, she tried to think back to the night before. Everyone had gotten together to celebrate Naruto _finally _becoming a Chunin at Shushuya and they all had gotten more than a little tipsy. Sakura could remember scolding Naruto about something she couldn't remember and boldly challenging Genma to a drinking competition and failing miserably.

After that? _Nothing. _

Sakura bravely cast a look at the still naked Kakashi, who hadn't moved from his spot in the five minutes he'd been there. Sakura shifted in her position and looked away from him uncomfortably. "You should probably uh… get dressed." Kakashi mumbled.

Sakura nodded and cast one last glance at Kakashi, allowing herself to gaze admiringly at his face once more. Why did he cover it up? There was nothing wrong with it. _Certainly _not. And every time he spoke, she could only see tiny flashes of perfectly straight, white teeth.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, Sakura cleared her throat. "Right, um…" She peeked over the edge of Kakashi's bed to peer at the floor in search of her clothes. She blushed at the sight of her dark red lace panties crumpled and carelessly thrown into a pile with her matching bra. Off to the side, thrown just as carelessly as her intimates, were her black knee high boots.

Sakura's eyebrows rose. Her shoes were one of the last to go? Strange.

Fighting down the urge to scream and kill herself, Sakura tentatively reached down and snatched her bra and underwear from the floor. She looked at Kakashi nervously and he cleared his throat in the same manner. His eyes flitted across the room, landing on anything _but _her. She'd never seen him like this, and quietly took pleasure in the fact that she was probably the first of her teammates to see it as well.

"I'll be in the other room." Kakashi said as he avoided her eyes, he'd already spotted his black briefs in the other corner of the room and picked them up quickly, leaving Sakura to get changed into her underwear. Sakura had to look away at the red angry lines running down his back when he turned away from her, she blushed furiously. Did she do that?

Sakura slid into her panties and reached around to clip the bra behind her back. She slid off the bed and slowly stepped into her boots, zipping them up.

Kakashi rested his head against the refrigerator, his mismatched eyes closed tightly. He had his briefs on now and had already slipped on the dark pants he wore last night, the ones he found strewn across the floor among piles of broken glass and some of what he thought to be Sakura's belongings.

_Sakura._

Kakashi let out a strangled sigh as he thought about her, he was too old to consider her a sister and too young to consider her a daughter, and so he guessed he could consider her a friend. Someone he could guide and look after but at the same time joke around and drink with.

But it seems he went a little _too _far with the latter last night.

She was beautiful, of course. He remembered thinking the same thing last night, but after that? Absolutely nothing.

And she was there. In his _bedroom. _Completely naked.

Kakashi lifted his head for a brief moment, only to rest it against the refrigerator once more in irritation. He couldn't remember _anything _from last night. Did they…? No, they couldn't have. There's no way he would've done that to her drunk. Or sober.

But after seeing Sakura, looking so perfect sitting in the middle of his bed, wearing absolutely nothing and covered in hickeys and light little bruises that looked like they were made by _him_, he couldn't help but wish he did. If only for a moment. He had to look away when she sat up and put her hands on her hips, her perfect white breasts bouncing slightly as she did so, pale pink nipples standing at attention and _facing _him. He had to fist the sheets and turn away to keep from getting visibly aroused.

And her thighs. _Fuck, _her legs were amazing. Perfectly unscarred by war and training, athletic and flawless in every aspect. The way she tensed and squished her legs together so he couldn't see _all_ of herwas so delicious he almost walked straight up to her and kissed her.

Even now, just thinking about it, his breathing became uneven. What was happening to him? He wanted to…

"Kakashi-sensei?" A voice came from the doorway to his bedroom. Inhaling deeply, Kakashi turned to face her.

His blood ran hot.

He stared at her shamelessly, running his eyes all the way from her beautiful face, down her elegant neck to the tops of her breast, now –_unfortunately_, he thought darkly- covered by the bra she wore the night before. He stared at them for a moment, watching them rise and fall in unison with her ragged breathing before moving down to her trim waist, completely flat and showing the faintest outline of muscle. Low on her slender hips was her matching panties, covering up barely anything as they were almost see-through. Swallowing the lump in his throat and trying to push down his arousal at his _ex-student _for God's sakes, he studied the legs he was quietly admiring before she entered, so long and flawless. Her thighs were pushed together nervously to hide as much of her body as she could and when she cleared her throat and dropped her arms to go around her waist, Kakashi met her eyes with his.

"Yes?" He asked, his fists tightening at his sides.

"Do you know where my…"

"Check there." He said, pointing at the heap of clothes on the floor that _must've _been a mixture of hers and his.

Nervously she made her way to the pile of broken glass and heap of clothes, being careful as to not step on anything sharp. She bent down to pick them up so she could sort through them and Kakashi had to turn around to avoid looking at the curve of her ass, not even hidden by the thin strap of her underwear.

Sakura barely took any notice of this and picked up the bundle of clothes, there was her black jacket, a customary shinobi flak jacket, a sleeveless shirt that she knew was Kakashi's because of the high neck that must've served as his mask. Sakura swallowed a lump in her throat when she pulled out her dress from the pile; she held it out of arm's length as she studied it strangely. Slowly, she slipped it over her head and wriggled into it.

When she'd put the dress on properly, Kakashi's eyes went straight to one of her creamy white thighs. The dress was black and ended at mid-thigh, it was tightly fitting and accentuated her athletic body, but that's not what caught Kakashi's attention at first. The first thing he noticed were the purposeful rips in the dress at both of her thighs, running from the hem of it all the way up to her hips, only stopping at the waist-band of her panties.

_Oh God, _Sakura grumbled inwardly, her embarrassment flaring with every moment she thought about Kakashi doing all sorts of things to her.

_Oh God, _Kakashi said, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. As a man, he was definitely satisfied. The thought of him ripping her dress _may _have turned him on _a little bit._ But as Sakura's _team leader _and _ex-teacher, _Kakashi was anything but.

Kakashi turned away to glare at the kettle, "Tea?" He asked.

"No, I have to uh-" her normally bold voice wavered at the sight of his back muscles tensing as his broad shoulders rolled back and forth to get rid of the tension in them, "-heal people and… stuff."

_And stuff? Are you fucking serious? Couldn't you just say 'work', Sakura? _She shouted, mentally throwing herself into a pack of hungry wolves. _Idiot._

"Right, oh yeah, of course. I'll see you later then, I suppose." Kakashi said, silently thanking God that she hadn't said yes or else he would've had to stare at her and imagine his hands all over her. He needed her out. He needed a shower. He needed to get to Genma and ask him _what the fuck _happened last night.

"See you, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura's voice rang through the apartment as she opened the front door.

Kakashi breathed out a sigh of relief and let out a strangled, "See you, Sakura."

As Sakura hurried down the steps, her jacket tucked around her so as to hide her dress during her possible walk of shame out of Kakashi's apartment building, earning a few strange and knowing looks from some of the tenants who were also leaving and some people on the streets too. What the hell was up with that?

_I need to get to Ino, _she thought as she hurried to the hospital. She was already late, that was for sure. She had a spare set of clothes there, and hopefully, Ino wasn't too hungover to call in late or even worse- sick. She looked over her shoulder at Kakashi's apartment building and her stomach did somersaults at the thought that she might've_ actually _had sex with him. She broke into a hurried jog. She definitely needed to get to Ino. _Fast. _


	2. Ino and Genma

"You _fucked _Kakashi!"

Sakura slapped a hand to her face, slowly dragging it down. She was alone in the lab, save for Ino, who was currently waving a finger at her friend accusingly as she grinned at her proudly. "Ino, shut up!"

"Shut up? _Shut up? _You had Kakashi's dick _in _and _around _your mouth and _you_ _know it!" _

Sakura's eyes widened as she threw her head back and let out a bark of laughter at her friend's casual statement. "Ino, shut up! You're so loud, someone might hear you."

"Hear me? Honey, please! _Everyone _already knows. I bet _you _were the loud one!"

Sakura's face dropped, "What?"

Ino pulled a chair from one table and dragged it behind Sakura's desk. She joined her pink-haired friend and plopped onto it, smirking at her. "Don't act coy with me, Haruno. You were _all_ over each other last night and word travels fast! And behind that abnormally _huge," _Ino raised a finger and jabbed between Sakura's eyebrows, "forehead of yours, you know it too."

"That's the thing. I _don't _know it. I don't remember _anything._" Sakura reasoned, propping her elbows onto the desk and dropping her head into her hands exasperatedly. She was so consumed by worry and concern that she didn't see Ino's expression as she laughed.

"You don't remember _anything? _You poor thing, I'd hate to forget _that _fine piece of-"

"How's Genma? Hm?" Sakura cocked an eyebrow as she stared at her friend. Honestly, it was no secret that Ino had a _huge _thing for the senbon wielding pervert and had been trying for weeks to snag his attention. Apparently, Sakura was too… _preoccupied _to know if she succeeded.

Ino's bright blue eyes glazed over as she let her head loll back. "We went back to his place…" She trailed off, "Oh Gosh, Sakura. It was the best sex I've ever had. He did this most amazing thing with his tongue when he-"

"Wow, these reports are interesting." Sakura interrupted, her eyes widening in shock at the image that popped into her head. She scrambled to reach for the stack of papers on the desk so she could distract herself from whatever Ino was saying.

Ino continued however, smirking at Sakura's prudish reaction. "He pushed his fingers-"

"Did you know that Ebisu was born with an extra thumb?" Sakura interrupted again, laughing nervously.

Ino's grin only widened, "I screamed so loud that he had to muffle me with-"

"Was that Lady Tsunade? I'm sure it was, I better-"

"Sakura!" Ino said amusement clear in her voice but overpowered by her stern and patronizing expression.

"Yes?_" _Sakura couldn't help but smile and blow the few stubborn strands of pink hair that _refused _to be tamed away from her eyes.

Ino crossed her arms over her ample breasts and studied her friend for a moment. "So, you _really _can't remember anything?"

"Not a thing," Sakura dropped her chin onto her fist and regarded Ino curiously. "What about you? Is there anything you can tell me- _asides _from your sexcapades?"

A goofy grin crossed Ino's face, one which she tried and failed multiple times to drop. She shrugged at Sakura and sighed, "Well…"

_It was 10.30 and Sakura was drunk. Really drunk. So drunk in fact, that she was touching Kakashi. And not the innocent type of touching either- groping was more like it. And had been for about half an hour straight, now._

_Ino looked on with a knowing grin before tipping her head back to allow more burning hot liquid slide down her throat. "Genma, get over here!" She cried out drunkenly, looking at Genma with a come-hither smile. _

_When Genma arrived at Ino's side, he rested a warm hand on her thigh, playing with the hem of her deep blue skirt. Genma leant in, his lips hot and wet against the shell of her ear and she shivered in delight. She glanced at Sakura and Kakashi, no one else had seemed to notice the pair except her. _

_Sakura's chest was pressing into Kakashi's arm, her breasts practically spilling over the top of her dress, looking bigger than usual-_

Sakura glared at Ino distastefully.

_-they sat in a huge booth and Sakura's fingers were almost intertwined with Kakashi's between their bodies. Between them, they spoke in hushed tones, whispering dirty things into each other's ears, no doubt. Her other hand rested on his thigh, occasionally trailing up to play with the zipper of his pants. Kakashi's hand slowly caressed from her collar bones, down the side of her breasts, where Ino didn't miss the subtle brush of her nipple-_

Sakura groaned and pressed her red face into her hands.

_-slowly down to the dip of her waist and then to the hem of her dress. Ino saw Kakashi's hand disappear under her dress and Sakura's head loll to the side before resting on Kakashi's shoulder. Sakura seemed to have done something to Kakashi, because his head tipped back a little, his eyes fluttered shut for the smallest fraction of time and the outline of his masked lips moved. Ino watched for a little longer, not because she cared about what they were doing, but more that if it went any further, Ino would finally see what was under that God forsaken mask. Sakura's hand had disappeared just as Kakashi's had and they were staring at each other in the most intimate of ways-_

"This is the worst day of my life." Sakura groaned.

_-Ino looked away from the couple to focus her attention to the man at her side as he leant in for a kiss after whispering all the things he was going to do to her tonight into her ear. Ino reached an arm around his neck and fisted her hand into his long brown hair, responding to the kiss fiercely. Their tongues-_

"Thanks for that, Ino." Sakura interrupted; her face still red but stoic and showing no other signs of earlier embarrassment. Sakura mulled over Ino's recount of what Sakura had gotten up to last night. Did she really… do _that _with Kakashi?

"Oh no, thank _you. _I _finally _have something interesting to talk about with Shizune for a change!" Ino grinned, throwing her hands up in the air and winking at her friend.

*.*

"You _fucked _Sakura?"

Kakashi buried his face into his book, resisting the urge to throw it at Genma and break his nose. "Shut up, we don't need _everyone _knowing, do we?" Kakashi mumbled.

"It's a little late for that don't you think? I'm a little hurt that I found out from Hana Inuzuka and not my best-friend." Genma's bottom lip jutted out into a pout as he stared at Kakashi with wide brown eyes.

"We're friends?"

"My _point _is that I'm the last to know." Genma dropped onto the couch next to Kakashi, "As usual."

Kakashi sighed and contemplated on his course of action. He could either:

Run away.

Ignore him.

Talk to him.

The first two options grew even more appealing after Genma said, "She's hot. I'm kind of jealous, but then again, Ino was-"

Kakashi snapped his book shut and decided to face the situation at hand. "I don't know if I actually slept with Sakura." He rested the book on his lap and pushed up his hitai-ate, rubbing restlessly at his Sharingan eye. With the situation he woke up in this morning, it was more than enough evidence that they had, in fact, had sex. But if they did, he was _sure _he'd at least have _some _recollection of it.

"Bullshit. What do you mean you don't know?" Genma's eyebrows rose as he rolled the end of his senbon between his teeth.

Kakashi sighed and threw his head back so it could rest on the back of the couch. "I m_ean _that I _don't know. _I don't think I'd forget about that sort of thing, no matter how drunk I was."

Genma nodded thoughtfully. "Well, what _do _you remember?"

Kakashi shot his perverted friend a side-long glance and clasped his fingers behind his head. "Not much. I remember Naruto challenging me to a drinking competition and then Sakura and Ino came in. I don't remember anything else after that, it's all…" He rubbed his jaw with one hand, "Blank."

Genma's eyebrows rose at his friend's exasperated expression. He'd never seen Kakashi ponder over something like this before, or care about it really. But he supposed it was because it was Sakura. And that shit's complicated. "I guess I can help you out, since you're my best friend," Genma grinned, the senbon in his mouth flashing dangerously.

Kakashi rolled his eyes before pulling his hitai-ate back down to cover his Sharingan.

"I _vaguely _remember seeing you and Sakura last night, you know, when I wasn't preoccupied of course." He winked.

Kakashi sighed and rolled his eyes a little at his friend's fondness over the memories of Ino from last night, he nodded as a sign to let him continue.

_It was ten minutes away from three o'clock in the morning and Kakashi and Sakura were still nowhere to be found. Ino, Kiba, Hinata, Naruto and Neji were the only ones aside from him that remained at Kakashi's house. They sat in the living room; Genma had his arm around Ino's waist as they sat close together on the floor. Naruto had his head resting in Hinata's lap and Neji and Kiba were in a heated discussion about something he didn't care about. _

_Sakura came in with Kakashi following closely behind her. Too closely-_

Genma grinned at the slight frown that donned Kakashi's half hidden face.

_-They all sat around Kakashi's living room and when Kiba had proposed they play a game of strip poker, no one objected. So, they sat in a circle for an hour, laughing and taunting each other as the losers took their clothes off. Soon enough, mostly everyone ended up in less than three articles of clothing, their clothes strewn across the room lazily. Everyone except for Hinata._

"_You're surprisingly good at this, Hina-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, throwing his cards down in frustration as he grinned at the almost fully clothed kunoichi next to him. _

_Hinata, more confident and brash due to the effects of alcohol, grinned at him proudly. "Thank you, Naruto-kun." _

_Genma, though he was currently groping Ino, still kept an eye on Kakashi and Sakura, excited because his best friend hadn't fucked anyone for weeks._

Kakashi rubbed circles around his temple, soothing his brain. Genma was a real idiot.

_-The game was over and Kakashi was suddenly way more interested in the lingerie clad kunoichi than anyone else. His fingers were playing with the clasp at the back and occasionally moving up her shoulder to slip his fingers under the strap and pull it, allowing it to snap back against the front of her shoulder lightly. One of her hands was lost under his shirt while the other was fiddling with the zipper of his pants and judging from the way Kakashi let out a growl and dropped his head into the part where her neck met her shoulder- he _liked _it. _

Kakashi shot his friend a sideways glare. Genma was getting way too into his recount of his friend's activities, but he tried to ignore his perverted smirk so he could find out what happened last night with Sakura.

-_With Ino in her underwear, Genma couldn't help himself. He dashed over to pick up the clothes he could identify as theirs, he grabbed Ino and threw her over his shoulder, eliciting from her a playful giggle he found so sexy. With a wink at Kakashi, Genma and Ino exited his apartment, both highly intoxicated and clad in nothing but their underwear. _

Genma looked at his friend proudly and grinned. "So? Ring a bell?"

Kakashi's nose wrinkled, "Vaguely. But that only explains the clothes."

"Come on, Kakashi. You woke up naked. Together. In _your _bed. The Kakashi I know wouldn't have let that sort of opportunity slip." Genma rolled the senbon between his teeth again and shrugged.

Kakashi groaned and picked up his book, "Maybe so, but this is _Sakura _we're talking about." He headed towards the exit of the Jonin standby station. He had to go find Sakura. But what would he say to her when he did? '_Sorry about the sex?'_'

Regardless, he had to talk to her. They were teammates. Any sort of tension between them could fester if left unattended, and that could not only affect them, but the rest of their team as well. Of course, they had to talk in private. If Genma was right about 'it' getting out, then being together with her wouldn't exactly help put the rumors to rest.

But were they _just_ rumors?

Kakashi decided not to tell Genma his plans for the day; instead he just waved at him with his book and turned to leave. Though his body didn't react to Genma's parting words, his mind certainly imagined himself throwing his book straight at his old friend's nose.

"Tell Sakura I said 'hi.'"

_Asshole._


	3. Shushuya

"Damn, she is _such _a bitch." Ino grumbled, flipping the cranky old head nurse off behind her back. Ino fumbled with the stack of folders the nurse had brusquely pushed into her arms, accompanied by a haughty grin. "Can't _wait _till she drops dead."

Sakura snorted. She'd always found other people's misfortunes amusing. Her own however, didn't amuse her quite as well.

Such as this morning.

For three hours, Sakura had been pleasingly preoccupied by Ino in the lab of the hospital, performing experiments with poisons and their remedies, so Sakura didn't have much time to think about the man she woke up to this morning.

The tall, muscular, _sexy _man who smelled like _goddamn _cinnamon and she fucking loved cinnamon.

Flashes of his muscles tensing came to mind as he fiddled with the kettle in his kitchen this morning, rippling as he reached for the sugar from the top shelf and then tensing even more as he rolled his shoulders back and forth. The scratch marks that trailed down his back didn't help her attraction any.

"Sakura-sama? You have a, uh… a visitor." No matter how many times Sakura strongly _insisted _the medics at the hospital drop the honorifics, they _never _did. Sakura turned around to politely chastise the new medic, but her words were caught in her throat.

The medic, Midori, was gazing up at Kakashi with a look Sakura could only describe as admiration and new-found infatuation. Kakashi paid no mind to the flushed girl as he stepped into the lab and looked around, before finally allowing his eyes to settle on Sakura.

"Thank you, Midori-san." Kakashi smiled at his new admirer charmingly, and Sakura could've sworn the girl thought she'd just died and gone to Heaven. After mumbling a panicky 'goodbye', Midori left, leaving Kakashi with Ino and Sakura.

The lab wasn't very large nor was it small. There were desks littered with stacks of folders and scrolls and tables strewn with flasks and bubbling vials. It was a Sunday and during the morning to early after-noon, Sakura and Ino were the only ones working. "Kakashi-sensei," Sakura greeted.

"Sakura," he replied as he made his way to her desk. Kakashi was taken aback by Sakura's casualness. He'd have thought that because of her reaction to him this morning, she'd have bolted out of the room by now, avoiding him at all costs.

Little did he know that that was _exactly _what Sakura was thinking of doing.

"Ino." The blonde girl said wryly, however not as a greeting, more as a way to remind Kakashi and Sakura that she was still there. A grin plastered itself onto Ino's face as she watched the two look at her before looking at each other.

"I came to talk about..." Kakashi cast a cagey glance at Ino before dropping his voice, "Last night."

Sakura unhurriedly rose from her seat and made her way around the desk so that she was standing almost toe to toe with Kakashi. She looked at him with interest, "Yeah?"

Kakashi didn't like having people listen in to his private conversations and when he cast another wary glimpse at Ino who was sitting at her own desk, her chin on her fist and her eyes animatedly watching the whole exchange, he realized that he didn't like that either. "Can we talk alone?"

Sakura was so caught up in the alluring memory of his unmasked face that she didn't realize his eyes flicker to Ino with carefully concealed deliberation. She glanced at Ino from the corner of her eye and saw her grin in anticipation, the blonde's intentions of not moving at all became clear when she said, "Oh, don't mind me."

Sakura's right eye twitched, a habit she wanted to get rid of badly as it only appeared when she was exasperated, fuming, or both. She let out a breath and shrugged off her white lab coat, "Let's go somewhere else."

Sakura didn't miss the pout Ino shot their way as Kakashi followed her out of the lab and down the hallway. As they walked, they tried to put an appropriate amount of distance between them, not enough to look like strangers but enough to look like friends.

_Just _friends.

As they strode through the labyrinthine and sometimes despicably tortuous hallways of the hospital, they couldn't help but detect the apprehensive stares they got from some of the staff and patients. Sakura resisted the urge to beat them all to a pulp.

Sakura took note of the rising humidity of the air when they exited through the front doors of the hospital and desperately tried to keep her eyes from wandering back to gawk at Kakashi.

_Hey, this isn't awkward at all. _Even Sakura's thoughts lied to her and she sneered at the ground as they aimlessly walked to an indefinite destination.

"So…" Sakura began, clasping her hands behind her back to conceal her anxious fidgeting.

Slowly, they came to a stop in the middle of the street and Kakashi sighed and faced her fully. "I talked to Genma." Kakashi said, looking straight into her beautiful jade eyes. "He told me what he remembered from last night."

Sakura's eyebrows rose in curiosity. Was Genma's recollection of the night the same as Ino's? Were they dependable? Were they just as embarrassing? "Ino, too." Sakura frowned at herself when she felt the familiar inconsistent thud of her heart in her ears. "What did Genma remember?"

Kakashi scratched the back of his neck, "Apparently we moved the party to my place," he considered his choice of words, trying to choose his sentence carefully so as to spare Sakura of any embarrassment. But he was never good with that sort of stuff. "We played strip poker."

Eighteen letters. Four words. One sentence.

That was all it took for Sakura to want to kill herself for what felt like the three hundredth time today.

"_What?" _

"We played-"

"I know what you said!"

"You asked-" Kakashi was cut off for the second time when Sakura held up a finger and inhaled deeply to try and calm her breathing.

"Okay," Sakura said, her voice coming out breathy and quiet, as if it was more to calm herself down than anything else. "According to Ino, we were 'all over each other' at Shishuya." Sakura curled her fingers into air quotation marks, blushing as she recalled what Ino had told her.

Kakashi's only visible eyebrow shot up as he looked at her. "What do you mean all over each other?"

Sakura glared at Kakashi, "I _mean _that we were groping each other without a care in the world."

Kakashi almost laughed. This was _some_ situation he'd gotten himself into and with _Sakura _of all people? He must've done something really bad in his past life. "This isn't looking so good for us."

"Tell me about it."

Kakashi and Sakura stood in the middle of the street, ignoring the questioning glances of the people milling about. Sakura tried hard to think about that night, but the only thing she could remember was things _before _she got drunk. Everything else was just a black void in her memory. She raised her eyebrows at Kakashi and had to tilt her head a little to look straight into his stormy eye, "So, what's our next course of action, Captain?"

Though Kakashi smiled at Sakura, he couldn't help the nagging pit forming in his stomach at the fact that she'd called him that. Even hearing her add '_sensei_' at the end of his name, which she sometimes did out of habit, made him cringe a little bit. It perfectly showed their relationship and understanding with each other before all this happened.

"Time for a bit of recon."

*.*

It was the busiest time of the day for Shushuya and as Kakashi and Sakura entered, they were lucky enough to find a small table for two, tucked away in the corner. The only problem was: it was _too _intimate.

The table was originally meant for couples, much to Sakura's dismay, and was the only table available to them. Thanks to Kakashi's exceptional luck with genetics, it couldn't be helped that his long muscular legs rubbed against her bare ones underneath the table.

"I find it hard to believe that we did _any _of the things Ino and Genma claim we did." Sakura said, crossing her arms over her chest. It was the truth. She r_eally_ did. Sakura wasn't the type to publicly stick her hand down anyone's pants, let alone Kakashi's. Drunk or sober.

Kakashi felt the same. Though he had his fair share of drunken one-night stands, he remembered _all _of them. To an extent. He found it very uncharacteristic of him to forget it all, to forget if he ever really touched Sakura the way he's been wanting to since they woke up this morning.

"I agree, but we can't rule it out just by that alone. We need evidence." Kakashi frowned into his glass of water and swirled its contents around, her delicate floral scent mixed with vanilla assaulted his nose, making him want to squirm in his seat.

"So, we find whoever was working here last night and then what? Ask if we had sex on the table?" Sakura asked, raising an eyebrow. Sakura _hated _to have conversations with her friends without making a wise-crack at least _once. _It was a tendency she thoroughly enjoyed, one she picked up from the knuckle-head ninja himself.

The glass in Kakashi's surprisingly slender fingers stopped and she looked up at him to see a dark eye wide open in shock, before it narrowed. "And if the answer is yes?"

Sakura felt the warning signs of a flush creeping up her neck. It was so damn hard to read him with half his face covered, but the way his voice sounded- so flippant and smooth at the same time- she could only just pick out the faintest tone of desire. She didn't answer, she didn't want her attraction to get the better of her. Instead, she dropped her eyes to her own glass of water in front of her, the smallest hint of a smile on her pale pink lips.

It took almost all of Kakashi's self control to not reach his hand under the table and run it up her leg when it accidentally rubbed against his. He bit the inside of his cheek, trying to keep his only visible eye trained on her. He wondered if she was thinking the same thing he was; her perched on top of the very table they sat at with her legs wrapped around his waist. He imagined her back arched in ecstasy and head resting on his shoulder as they thrust against each other, the sound of his name on her lips as she screamed herself hoarse while he whispered dirtily into her ear all the different ways he was going to take her.

"Do you two need anything?" A voice asked, ripping Sakura and Kakashi from their dirty and sinful thoughts. "Wait a second, aren't you two from last night? How's that Naruto guy, is he okay?"

Sakura's eyes snapped to Kakashi, who looked at her just as fiercely. The way they looked at each other conveyed one simple, mutual message.

_Bingo._

"Oh? Why wouldn't he be?" Sakura asked politely, shooting the waitress a charming smile.

The waitress was pretty, with dark eyes and matching hair that was piled on top of her head and secured with a chopstick. She raised an eyebrow at Sakura and smiled, "Well, he challenged that Hyuga boy - Neji, was it? - to a fight." She laughed, "I wish I could've seen it!"

Kakashi decided that it was time for him to jump in, "Why didn't you?"

The waitress, Naoko –as her name tag read- turned her attention to Kakashi, her eyes going wide. Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Ever since she could remember, Kakashi had always been a hit with the ladies. And you could only see his eye, for God's sakes! What could it _possibly _be that attracted girls to him just by looking at his half masked face?

Naoko cleared her throat, "He… the boss kicked your group out. There were too many of you and you were all drunk and a fight in here would've caused too much damage. Not to mention it was half an hour till closing time. So you… uh… you guys took it to the Training Grounds." Her cheeks flushed and Sakura crossed her arms over her chest, staring at her suspiciously.

"Is that so?" Kakashi mused, his eye tilting up at the corner. "Thank you, Naoko-san."

Naoko looked like she was in a trance when she smiled at Kakashi and scurried away, her skirt billowing out behind her. Sakura looked at Kakashi, who just rested his chin onto his fist, looking fine and dandy.

"So, seems pretty legitimate. Naruto always starts fights when he's drunk." Sakura said, taking a sip of water.

Kakashi watched her pink little tongue swipe at her bottom lip and subconsciously knocked his knee into the inside of her thigh. He didn't mean to, really, he didn't. But he couldn't help but like it.

It was at that moment that Kakashi Hatake knew- he was going to hell.

Sakura glanced at Kakashi from over the rim of her glass when she felt his knee press into her thigh, out of instinct, she snapped her legs shut. But that only made things worse. Sneaking a calm glance underneath the table, Sakura realized that she had –accidentally- encased Kakashi's knee in between her bare thighs.

Sakura bravely removed her eyes from their legs to his face and watched whatever she could see of his previously calm expression darken. "Neji must know what happened," she said, proud that her voice came out stronger and bolder than she felt.

Kakashi nodded quickly and ran a gloved hand through the messy and gravity-defying strands of his silver hair. "I heard he was out on an errand to one of the civilian villages, he won't be back until tomorrow."

Sakura sighed, "Well, shall we meet tomorrow then?"

Kakashi nodded, his attention purely on the pout of her soft pink lips and those alone as she spoke. He didn't even listen to her as she told him where she'd be, what she'll be doing and at what time they would see each other. Instead, he just stared at her lips. The whole time.


	4. Neji

Sakura wiped the sweat from her forehead and upper lip as she aimed at the wooden post with her shuriken and threw. She asked herself why she was out at eleven in the morning, in this unbearable heat, training. She was glad, at least, that she'd chosen to wear minimal clothing and that she'd had the foresight to drown herself in sunscreen before she left her apartment.

She'd been working her ass off at the training grounds for two hours now and was just about ready to leave when she heard the faint sound of footsteps behind her. She knew it wasn't an enemy- well, not a life-threatening one at least. She could tell by the masked chakra and by the deliberate lightness of their footfalls, they were looking for a fight.

She could also tell by the overpowering smell of cinnamon that it was Kakashi.

She kept her back to him, forcing herself to stay calm and not give away any signs of the anxiety swimming in her stomach. Her hand, the one that had just thrown three shuriken at the wooden post and hit her mark perfectly, moved to her pouch to prepare herself while the other inched toward the kunai pouch at her hip.

She let out a tiny groan as she tilted her neck to one side and then the other, satisfied with the pop of joints and stretch of muscles. Then, without warning she spun around, assaulting him with a barrage of shuriken.

Sakura wasn't stupid. She knew he wasn't slow enough to get hit by her attack, which was why she pivoted on her back foot almost immediately after, coming face to face with an unmasked and grinning Kakashi.

This close, Sakura could see his face, void of imperfections save for the small chip in one of his canines and scar across his left eye. She wished she could see him like this more often, his fully exposed face was a sight that would have all the girls in Konoha kissing his feet, and maybe some guys too.

Kakashi gripped her wrists and held them at arm's length. "I thought we were meeting at twelve?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi didn't want to let Sakura know that he didn't listen to a single word that came out of her mouth yesterday when they- well, more like _she _planned to meet. Instead, Kakashi shrugged one shoulder, "Actually, I'm waiting for Naruto." He cocked his head to the side and smiled at her lopsidedly, "Quick attack, by the way_, someone's_ taught you well."

Inside, Sakura beamed. Her stomach fluttered at the approval her ex-sensei and team leader had given her, she couldn't remember the last time he did it. But then again, the last time he'd cared enough to watch her fight was when she was 12.

And she wasn't that great when she was 12.

Sakura didn't let her giddiness reach the surface; instead she shot him a cool grin, "Yeah. Tsunade's a great teacher."

Slowly, Kakashi's smug grin dropped and Sakura had to bite her tongue to keep from smirking at him. His narrowed mismatched eyes stared at her with an unfamiliar emotion, "Tsunade, hm?"

Sakura knew that overlooking his teachings and openly appreciating Tsunade's would strike a nerve and she didn't bother to hide her grin as his fingers tightened around her wrists. "Yep. _Tsunade."_

Kakashi dropped one of her wrists to aim a blow to his ex-student, his knuckles grazing Sakura's chin. _Idiot, _Sakura mentally berated herself when she saw his right knee lift slightly; indicating that his first swing was only a feint. The knee to her stomach doubled her over, forcing all the air from her lungs.

Sakura jumped back and glared at the smug man, her brow knitting into a tight frown. "Did Tsunade teach you how to dodge too?" He smirked, lowering into a crouch, "Taijutsu match? Let's see how well she's taught you, _Sakura."_

_This was more like it! _Sakura thought as she lowered herself into a crouch of her own. She never would've felt satisfied with herself if she kicked Kakashi's ass when he was holding back. Riling him up is the only way to unleash his full strength, and he confidently lifted up his hitai-ate to reveal the red Sharingan eye that she's only seen a handful of times in her life.

Sakura took a few lurching steps forward, and on the fourth step, she swung. Kakashi's Sharingan saw through her attack, allowing him to gain enough time to duck under her arm. Before Sakura could even register the dodge, which she was soon to regret, Kakashi delivered a fist to her torso, sending fresh ripples of pain through her middle.

She didn't fall, she made absolute sure of that, and instead used the very small fraction of time he used to maneuver out of arms length to leap away from his still crouched form. The blow was a lot closer than she would've liked, but she was just getting started. She couldn't fail here, in front of him, after fighting for all of two minutes.

Sakura, grinning to herself, snatched out two kunai knives from her belt and flung it at her smirking, silver-haired opponent. He reached into his own pouch, withdrawing from it his own kunai, blocking the ones aimed straight for his crotch and face.

Sakura cursed under her ragged breath as she leapt back and lost her footing. _Rookie mistake, Sakura. _She grumbled mentally as her back hit the think trunk of one of the trees surrounding the training grounds. She was about to remove herself when a fist pounded onto the space right next to her head, she gritted her teeth and snarled, turning the other way, but was trapped with another fist.

Aggravated, she slumped against the tree and crossed her arms over her chest. Her thighs burnt from overexertion and the emphatic thump of her chest threatened to drown out the sound of birds and their deep, fragmented pants. "You cheated." Kakashi breathed, standing far enough to allow more than a few inches between her crossed arms and his chest but close enough to smell her intoxicating scent and appreciate the sensation of her warmth, no doubt intensified by the unbearable summer heat that surrounded them.

Sakura's heart beat faster, and it wasn't because of the exercise. Kakashi was so close. So, _so_ close. All she really needed to do was push off the tree and lean forward and they would be chest to chest. She watched his shoulders rise and fall in time with his uneven breathing, his black sleeveless shirt along with the mask attached to it was drenched in sweat. "Aren't you hot?"

Kakashi's mismatched eyes snapped to hers at her seemingly innocent question. The answer was yes. He was very hot. But the weather and exercise only played a small part in that.

It didn't help him any that there was a certain pink-haired kunoichi in front of him, clad in nothing but a short singlet that barely reached her navel and the tiniest shorts he'd ever seen. He mentally kicked himself when he saw a tiny bead of sweat slide down the smooth, alabaster skin of her neck and wished that he could take her back to his apartment and make her sweat even more. "Very." He breathed.

Sakura hummed and Kakashi didn't miss the dangerous glint in her jade green eyes. Searing pain started from his now broken and bloody nose and spread all the way through is face, his head flew back and he could've _sworn _that his brain rattled a bit.

With a devilish grin, Sakura sped away from him and came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the training grounds. Kakashi was an excellent shinobi and was better than her in close-range combat; Sakura didn't want to be drowning in his comfort zone any longer. Kakashi had stumbled his way right where Sakura wanted him, but Kakashi –the genius and battle extraordinaire- would never do that on purpose, which Sakura failed to remember.

Sakura grunted as she slammed a chakra infused fist to the ground causing it to crack and crumble as it gave way to her strength, sending chunks of rock and dirt up into the air around her and Kakashi. Her self-satisfied grin dropped from her sweaty face as the rubble settled back onto the ground and the famed Copy Ninja was nowhere in sight.

_Left, right, behind, up-_

Sakura was too late and she clenched her jaw to keep herself from shouting out profanities as Kakashi's body slammed into hers from above, sending the both of them to the ground. "Damn it!" Sakura spat out, annoyance clear in her voice.

When she looked into Kakashi's eyes, a part of her told her; '_No look away! Sharingan alert! Sharingan alert!' _Flashes of Sasuke, Itachi and their impending war with Madara and God only knows who else flitted through her mind, but were easily put to rest when his hitai-ate settled over it. She must've looked scared, and for that she was regretful. His eyes were beautiful, as strange and unnatural as they were, but she liked it. Even the scar that ran across his left eye should've been considered a huge flaw that spoiled his roguish good looks, but instead it only just enhanced them. It didn't spoil anything at all.

"I win."

Sakura pursed her lips as she glared at him half-heatedly. His nose was still bloody and crooked from her head butt and blood threatened to drop from the point of his nose onto her cheek. She could feel his thighs tighten at her sides as he shifted over her, straddling her heaving body. One of his arms was raised in mid-punch while his other hand was placed so close next to her face that her cheek lightly brushed his strong sweaty forearm. Intrepidly, Sakura raised her hand to his face.

Now that Kakashi was unmasked, she could see his expression clearly; shocked, but warm and welcoming of her touch. His face was flushed from the heat and their fight and his mouth twitched.

_Was that a habit? _Sakura thought, her gaze drifting from his uncovered eye to his pouty lips. She itched to kiss him and she wanted to hit herself over the shameful thought. He was her ex-sensei, for God's sake, not to mention her team leader and _friend._

"Sakura…"

Sakura's heart sped up at the sound of his voice. It was so breathy and low that she imagined him whispering it into her ear while they lay curled up side by side in a bed they shared. Literally shaking herself out of her dirty fantasies, she pressed a finger to his cheekbone and caressed her way to the bridge of his nose. She fixated her chakra onto the breakage and laced it under his skin and muscle, pulling the bone back into place and securing it. Now, all that was left was the blood that ran from his nose down to his chin. Acting purely on human instinct, she traced her fingers down his nose and paused on his smooth lips, blushing at the warm breath she felt on her fingertips and palm. Then, she tucked her fingers under his chin and using her thumb, swiped at the blood.

Kakashi's eyes never left hers and he didn't realize how close he'd leant in until she felt her warm breath on his cheek and her fingers under his chin. _Should I…? No, don't do it. _He thought, his lip twitching.

Sakura, forcing herself out of her dreamy state, cleared her throat and looked away, ripping her fingers away from his face, worried that if he were to stare at her like that any longer, she'd accidentally lean in and kiss him. _It's Kakashi-sensei, Sakura. Don't. _

"So, the Hyuga compound?" Sakura asked in a low and croaky voice, her chest heaving.

Kakashi's eye widened and he shifted his weight onto one knee, sliding off her body. He raised a hand to tousle his hair, his well-muscled arms flexing deliciously as he did so. "12?"

Sakura nodded as she pulled herself up onto her knees and then her feet, Kakashi did the same. They avoided looking at each other, not because they felt awkward, but because they felt it too difficult to restrain themselves. "Tell Naruto that I'll see him tomorrow at Ichiraku's." Sakura said, to which Kakashi nodded.

Sakura left the training grounds and Kakashi couldn't help but watch the muscular curve of her backside and legs in those tiny black shorts. He hated the fact that she'd have to walk home in those; he didn't want anyone to try anything on her.

But that's where he stopped himself. Sakura wasn't a poor, helpless, little girl. She was a shinobi, and a damn good one at that judging by what she did to his face. Kakashi knew she could easily beat a pesky little pervert to a pulp. But he couldn't help but want to do it for her.

*.*

The Hyuga compound was just as elegant and beautiful as Sakura had imagined. She'd never been inside the walls before and though she'd fought side by side with many of the Hyuga and became friends with some, she was shocked to see so many people together with white eyes.

Sakura had long since changed into a pair of denim shorts and thin singlet and had slipped into the standard shinobi shoes. When she got home, she jumped straight into the shower, thinking about Kakashi the whole time.

Now, they sat together on the floor, Neji Hyuga sitting across from them with his eyes closed and arms crossed. "Well?"

Sakura answered before Kakashi could, which he thought was probably best, seeing as she was more familiar with the young Hyuga than he was. He frowned at the thought, glad that his mask hid his expression. _Though a mask would work with Sakura, _he thought wryly, _it would work with this kid._

"What happened the other night? The night when Naruto became Chunin? We were told he challenged you to a fight." Sakura questioned, an eyebrow arched in curiosity.

Neji's shot Sakura a small smile, "I don't remember a lot of things from that night, and that fight with Naruto is one of them… I wasn't much better than the two of you."

Sakura cast a sidelong glance at Kakashi. Did that mean Neji saw them? "What _do _you remember?"

Neji looked uncomfortable for a bit, "It's not the greatest thing to remember, but it's the only thing I remember clearly. You might not like this," He snorted, "Maybe you will."

Neji sighed and uncrossed his arms to place his hands on the floor behind him. Leaning back he blew a stray strand of long brown hair away from his eyes, looking as cool and handsome as the girls at the hospital believed him to be.

_Neji let out an annoyed sigh. He was _not _in a good mood. He was drunk, tired and couldn't find Lee. _

Great, _he thought darkly as he looked at the clock hanging on Kakashi's wall. It was 4.15 and Lee was still nowhere to be found. He'd already checked Kakashi's bathroom and office, but the drunken idiot was nowhere to be found. "Have you guys seen Lee?" He asked, walking into the living room. _

_Initially, he was slightly amused at Kiba's sour expression as he watched Naruto wrap an arm around Hinata. Kiba wasn't fond of the fact that Hinata had gone and got herself a boyfriend or whatever the blonde knucklehead was to her and found it his duty as a surrogate big brother to protect her virtue. Which she was probably going to lose soon, considering the way she blushed as Naruto whispered something in her ear. _

_At his question, Kiba perked up at the fact that someone was talking to him. "Nope, guys?" Kiba slurred, directing his question at the couple next to him. _

_Naruto reluctantly pulled away from Hinata and sighed, "What?"_

"_Do you know where Lee is? I searched all over." Neji leant against the wall in an attempt to reset the room that was spinning before his eyes. He groaned and held a hand up to his head. He was never good with alcohol. _

"_We'll help you find him." Hinata said, standing up._

_Naruto groaned, "Hinata…"_

"_Naruto-kun, we have to find Lee! What if he does something stupid?" Hinata frowned at the boy whose tongue was down her throat only moments earlier. _

_Naruto pouted and ran a hand through his blonde hair, messing it up even further. "Fine." _

_Kiba and Akamaru were the first to leave, heading out Kakashi's front door in search of their youthful friend. Hinata followed suit, tugging on the hand of a pouting and reluctant Naruto. Neji took a step out the door and then thought about Sakura and Kakashi, whom he hadn't seen since they arrived-_

Kakashi's mouth twitched again, a habit he hoped to get rid of in the future, as he met eyes with a red-faced Sakura.

_-Neji wandered through the apartment again, his boot crunching on some broken glass but he hardly took notice. He pushed open the door to his right, the only room he hadn't checked for Lee and was stopped in his tracks-_

Sakura let out a little squeak. Had he walked in on them… doing _it?_

_-Neji's eyebrows shot up and he wondered for a second if what he saw were the dizzying effects of drinking a little too much tonight. But it wasn't an illusion, Kakashi and Sakura were in bed together and they were less than half naked._

_They were lying on the bed, Sakura in her risqué underwear and boots and Kakashi in his briefs. Kakashi's head rested on Sakura's stomach, his lips pressed just below her navel and underneath his lips –along with all over her body- were bruises that he had enough sexual encounters to identify as hickeys. Sakura had her hands on his back and it was obvious that she was the one responsible for the red angry marks across his shoulder blades and lower back. Sakura's leg was curled around Kakashi's hip and her head was turned to the side, a faint smile on her lips._

_Neji observed them for a moment, not in a perverted way, more analytical. He'd never seen the too any more intimate than just friends and now they were like this? But that's not what shocked Neji, the one thing that made his eyes widen in surprise was the fact that they were _asleep.


	5. Naruto

_Her back was pressed against the slippery tile walls of her shower, her hair soaked and clinging to her smooth white breasts and craned neck. Everything burned. It was so hot. She was so hot._

_She let out an earsplitting cry as he pressed her harder into the wall, his length pounding into her hot wet core without restraint. Every time his hips slammed against hers, she'd cry out and writhe in his grasp, her eyes rolling back into her head and her lips parting with the feeling of him inside her._

_His fingers dug into her backside as he hooked his elbow under her knee and pulled it up, allowing the other to wrap around his waist. She groaned at the roughness of his touch, so warm and hard, yet so damn good. She tightened her leg around his waist, allowing him to rest an arm on the shower wall beside her head._

"_You feel so fucking good, Sakura." _

_She watched him, smiling at how his hair clung to his forehead and neck, no longer standing straight up the way it usually did, drenched from the warm water coming from above and head tipped back in unadulterated bliss. He panted in unison with his hard thrusts, the pouty lips she loved so much open to let out a sexy groan, his mismatched eyes half closed and staring at her in the most exhilarating of ways. Her eyes travelled from the streams of water running down the skin of his throat to rest on his rock hard chest and then lower, down to his abdomen- toned and the object of every Konoha girl's desire. Then, she continued lower still where they were joined. _

_His hips rubbed her thighs in a way that made her mouth water; she could see his length reappear before slamming into her over and over. "Oh my God," She cried, "Faster!"_

_He smirked, "If I could go any faster, Sakura," He let out a groan, his eyes snapping shut as he lowered his mouth to her neck, biting down so hard that she thought he drew blood. His smirk only widened at her breathy moan, "Believe me. I would."_

"_Clearly you're not trying hard enough."_

_It was like her words stirred up some sort of emotion inside of him, maybe poured more gasoline over the open fire of his sexual arousal. Either way, he seemed only to slam into her faster and harder than before, he lifted her thigh higher until her knee touched her shoulder and he traced her calf with his tongue. She moaned at the erotic sight and tightened her other leg around his waist, twisting the fingers of one hand around the hair at the nape of his neck and the fingers of the other dragging down his chest and abs, leaving red scratches in their wake. _

"_Is this fast enough for you, Sakura?" He groaned her name softly, taking his arm away from the wall to lay a hand on her breast, his palm kneading the soft wet mound. "Is it?"_

_Sakura could only groan in anticipation for the height of her climax, she nodded fiercely, "Mhm!" She moaned loudly and forced her eyes to stay open to stare at the man who was currently fucking her senseless._

"_Say my name." He continued with his rough thrusts and she almost came at the sight of his tongue swiping at his bottom lip before he pulled it in his mouth to catch between his teeth. "Say it."_

"_K-Kakashi!"_

Sakura's eyes shot open. _Oh my fucking God. _

She'd just had a sex dream about Kakashi-_sensei. _

Even worse: she just had a sex dream about Kakashi-sensei and _liked it._

This was becoming a major problem for Sakura and despite her intelligence; she had _no idea _how to fix it. A few days ago, she would never have considered Kakashi as someone she'd like to have sex with.

Actually no, that was a lie. _Every _girl considered that.

But Sakura never thought of him as someone she'd _actually _have sex with.

He was her ex-sensei, her team leader, her _friend. _ She knew what involvements between team members did; she had to learn the hard way with Sasuke and he only left the village. She knew Kakashi would never abandon Konoha in his selfish search for power, but if he left in any other sense- missing or… dead- Sakura could only imagine what it'd do to her.

And to be involved with him if that were to happen? Out of the question.

But Sakura was getting too ahead of herself. Of course, all the evidence she'd gotten from her friends so far showed that she might as well have had sex with him, but there was still a huge possibility that she _hadn't._

And what if they hadn't? Sakura wasn't stupid. It was clear to her that Kakashi was attracted to her, it was obvious in the lustful stares they sometimes shared or the small moments where they'd touched and wanted more. But was she just a hopeful girl, making it up and reading too much into things? Did Kakashi care about her more than just a friend? Or did he just want to find out if he had sex with her so he could avoid her for a proper reason?

But then, what if they had? Would they… what? Continue on with their lives? Go on missions together? Would he allow her to heal him? Would she allow him to protect her? Would they spar and train together like friends? Or not call each other friends at all?

So many questions raced through Sakura's overworked mind that she had to rub her eyes. She was getting frustrated, she could tell by the slight twitch in her eye. She swore. This was getting too difficult, she had to find out what happened and then form a plan from there.

She slid out of her bed, sneering at the crinkled mess she'd made of it, and walked over to the bathroom to get ready to meet Naruto at Ichiraku. She dragged her feet to the adjoining bathroom with a long, loud yawn. She placed her hands on the edge of the sink and yawned once more, looking at her reflection tiredly.

Her cheeks were flushed and her hair was a mess and she knew it was all because of that steamy little dream she'd had moments before. She lifted up the edge of her thin singlet and turned towards the shower.

_-Her back was pressed against the slippery tile walls of her shower, her hair soaked and clinging to her smooth white breasts and craned neck. Everything burned. It was so hot. She was so hot.-_

Blushing a deep scarlet at the flashes of Kakashi being the reason as to w_hy _she was so hot in that dream, she let her singlet drop down to her navel. _I'll have a shower later, _she thought wryly.

Sakura turned back to the sink and sighed. She slowly picked up her toothpaste and squeezed it out onto her toothbrush before sticking it in her mouth and brushing her teeth fiercely. Sakura was never a very neat girl and she wasn't even fazed at the foam the toothpaste produced at her mouth and chin. She wondered what Kakashi would think if he saw her like this.

_Why do you care so much? _She thought, a frown edging itself onto her pretty face.

*.*

Naruto was already at Ichiraku Ramen when Sakura arrived, probably on his third bowl no doubt. Naruto's eyes snapped to hers over his bowl when she sat down beside him. He set his bowl down and offered her a noodle-filled grin, "Sakura-chan!"

"Hey," She smiled, taking in his spiky blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Truthfully, Naruto had gotten really attractive lately and it was only a matter of time before all the girls would crawl to him, luckily Hinata had gathered up the courage before anyone else. She deserved it.

"So what's up?" Naruto questioned, slurping up some soup. "Kakashi told me you sparred yesterday; he looked a little out of it. What did you do to him?"

Ayame grinned at Sakura in greeting before setting down a bowl of her usual tempura ramen. Sakura beamed at her. Nothing could cure Sakura's weary brain more than tempura ramen. "Well," She slurped some soup, "I broke his nose for starters."

Naruto let out a bark of laughter and patted her shoulder, "That's what I'm talking about."

As they talked and ordered bowl after bowl of ramen, Sakura felt happy. It had been a long time since her and Naruto could just share a simple moment together and not think about the Akatsuki, Kabuto or Sasuke. It was nice. It was normal.

But then Sakura had to put away the warm little feeling in her stomach to get straight down to business. The mystery of that night with Kakashi kept nudging its way into her brain during every conversation with Naruto, and it soon became too unbearable to ignore.

"What do I remember about that night?" Naruto tapped a finger to his chin, his eyes clouding over with uncharacteristic thoughtfulness. Then, a familiar cheeky grin slipped itself onto his handsome face. "Do you really want to know?"

Sakura scoffed and pinched the bridge of her nose. The truth was, she really did want to know, but only if it concerned her and Kakashi. She did _not _want to know about Hinata and Naruto, who were both practically like siblings to her. "You idiot, I only want to know what you remember about me and Kakashi."

The grin didn't falter and a mischievous laugh escaped from him, "I can't believe you and Kakashi-"

"_Shut up! _I don't even know if we did or not. That's why I'm asking you." Sakura fought to keep the amused smile off her face but knew that her efforts were useless. Naruto's happiness was contagious, when he smiled, _everyone _smiled.

"Fine, fine." Naruto laughed, he reached up to scratch his head before propping his cheek on his fist and giving her a nice smile.

_-Naruto's hands greedily delved under Hinata's lavender jumper, eliciting from her a quiet moan. The sound that passed through her lips turned him on so much that he pushed her back into the wall and hungrily bit into the sensitive place where her elegant neck met the smooth curve of her shoulder._

"_N-Naruto-kun!" Hinata whispered into his ear, her hot breath tickling the blonde hair at his ear. She pressed her chest against his and he wanted nothing more than to rip off her jumper and press his lips to every inch of her warm soft skin he could reach. _

_He needed to take Hinata somewhere private fast or else he'd end up ravishing her up against the wall in Kakashi's hallway. He picked her up and wrapped her slender legs around his waist, fisting a hand in her sleek black locks. He pulled away from her to see where his feet were taking them and groaned when he felt her hot wet mouth on his shoulder. Hastily, he pushed open the nearest door, unaware of his two oldest friends that were already in the room._

"_Oh, sorry." Naruto said absently, his mind still drawn to the feeling of Hinata's breast in his palm. Reluctantly, he tried to subtly remove it as he stared at Kakashi and Sakura apologetically and confusedly._

_Sakura was perched on top of the sink, her bare legs dangling over the edge with her black dress pushed so far up that Naruto was sure he could see half her underwear, her matching bra clearly seen over the top of her dress. In between her legs, stood Kakashi with his shirt half way up his abdomen and mask pulled down so that part of his nose was visible. _

_Kakashi had one hand resting on the edge of the sink, next to her creamy white thigh and the other was pressed to her face; his palm on her cheek and his long fingers reaching to one side of her forehead. They were abnormally close, and Naruto thought that if he was a second later, they would've probably been kissing. Sakura's hand was the reason why Kakashi's shirt was so far up, her face flushed from the alcohol and the embarrassment of the situation. Both of Kakashi's eyes were visible now, his hitai-ate pushed up to his forehead. He looked shocked and distracted at the same time. _

"_N-No worries." Sakura slurred, her hand immediately dropping from Kakashi's stomach to rest on her thigh. _

_Hinata seemed restless in Naruto's arms and he could tell that she was embarrassed by the way she hid her face in his neck and the crimson blush he saw creeping up her own. Naruto shot Sakura and Kakashi a drunken smile, not the least bit angry or upset that he'd just seen his friend and team leader in a compromising position, and turned around to leave, the bathroom door quietly clicking shut behind him. _

"_Naruto-kun, that was so embarrassing!" Hinata moaned in mortification, pressing her face deeper into his neck. Naruto laughed quietly and walked further down the hallway, a squirming Hinata in his arms-_

"And, that's pretty much it." Naruto smirked, "Well, that was pretty much it for _your _virgin ears."

Sakura punched him in the shoulder lightly, trying hard to fight the blush that decided to show on her cheeks and neck. "My ears aren't _virgin, _you idiot."

"Sure." Naruto patted her head lightly, as if she was a child and just told him that there was a monster under her bed.

Sakura huffed, "What time did all that happen?"

Naruto hummed, "Uh, 1 o'clock in the morning? Maybe a bit after, don't take my word for it though." Naruto chugged his glass of water. "Hey, I've got to run; I'm supposed to meet Hinata soon." He shot up and waggled his eyebrows, "Can't miss it."

"Whatever, you sex-fiend." Sakura waved him off, a light smile on her face at the grinning blonde. He gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek and jogged away.

That was when Sakura realized. "Cheeky bastard."

He left her the bill.


	6. Hinata

"We should make camp here and travel back to Konoha at first light." Yamato said, adjusting his pack higher up on his shoulders. It was getting dark, which wasn't the best time to travel through the forest that surrounded the coast. Across the water, they could see the Hidden Mist, the village they'd just returned to the mainland from. Sakura was glad to get out of there; it brought a barrage of memories from her Genin years. Ones she didn't want to remember.

Tsunade had sent Yamato, Sai, Kakashi and Sakura on a last minute mission to take back a forbidden jutsu scroll from the Mist. The mission was relatively easy; the team was skilled after all and was quite familiar with the village itself, so they were able to infiltrate the small shrine that it was sealed in and steal it without any trouble. Sakura remembered noting the lack of guards that watched over the scroll itself, the Mist was getting lazy.

They set up camp on top of a cliff, partially tucked into the safety of the towering trees overlooking the coast. Yamato yawned and cracked his knuckles; he reached inside his pack and brought out the scroll. The parchment was an unimpressive beige colour and was crinkled and ripped at the edges, Yamato laid it on the floor in front of them as Kakashi started a fire.

"So, who's on watch first?" Yamato asked, "I'd be happy to do it if no one else does."

Sai looked up and shot Yamato a disturbingly fake smile, "I'm sure Sakura and Kakashi would like to be left alone for the first few hours. They _did _engage in intercourse after all."

Yamato, who had been drinking from his canteen, spat his water out in shock. Kakashi's hands were paused above the open fire and his fingers twitched at Sai's blunt words, he glanced at Sakura.

Sakura's face was a dangerous shade of crimson and as she stared into the crackling flames of the fire Kakashi had skillfully set up, she couldn't help but want to throw herself into it. Sai was a _fucking _idiot. He was so blunt too! That damn kid had zero tact.

"Oh? I seem to have made things awkward." Sai frowned, confused. "Was intercourse the wrong word? Should I have said sex? Or maybe fu-"

Sai was stopped by Yamato's hand as he gave him a short whack to the back of the head. "Go to sleep, you socially inept idiot." Yamato hissed, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to gesture to the tent they'd set up upon arriving at their camp site.

Sai looked back and forth between his team members and sighed, mumbling something about how he didn't understand what he did wrong as he dragged his feet to the tent to get some rest. Yamato, feeling awkward in the silence created by the remaining members, cleared his throat and followed after Sai, murmuring a quiet, "Me and Sai will take watch after you two."

The silence threatened to swallow Kakashi and Sakura. Neither of them knew what to do, what to say or where to look. For ten minutes straight, Sakura sat across from Kakashi with her eyes trained on the crackling fire.

"I'm going to go look over the coast." Sakura mumbled, rising to her feet and walking quickly to escape Kakashi's intense gaze.

Sakura arrived at the edge of the cliff and looked over it, wondering if she jumped off of it, would the seemingly endless string of embarrassing accusations come to an end? Forcing out an agitated sigh, Sakura sat at the edge, her bare legs dangling over it.

So, even Sai, the socially incompetent asshole, knew of her and Kakashi's supposed activities from the night Naruto became Chunin. Ino had told her that word travels fast; Sakura thought that the whole of Konoha and maybe the Land of Fire knew that she, Sakura Haruno, had slept with Kakashi Hatake, the deadly Copy Ninja.

Sakura tipped her head back to look at the stars. She'd always preferred to go on watch until late at night over the crack of dawn. She liked the sky this way, in its most beautiful and vulnerable form, dark and so bright at the same time. She particularly liked the shape of the moon; a perfect crescent, iridescent against its shadowy back ground.

She realized she must've been staring up at the sky for ages when Kakashi took a seat next to her, one leg dangling off the edge like both of hers and the other bent so that he could rest his forearm atop his knee. He wasn't as close as she would've liked, but he was close enough that she could feel the warmth of his side and smell his sugary scent. She braved a glance at him and couldn't control the parting of her lips.

Suddenly, the sky became the second most beautiful thing to her as Sakura stared at his unmasked face. He suited the moonlit atmosphere so perfectly, with his silver hair, fair skin and dangerously attractive combination of eye colour, one dark and the other a striking bright red.

She looked away quickly and frowned. Since when was she all mushy and stupid? When was the last time a guy made her think that he was the only thing in the world to her? It'd been years since she was that kind of girl and she wasn't keen on becoming the sniveling brat she was back then.

"I've got to run an errand from Tsunade to the Hyuga compound tomorrow, I'm sure I'll be able to catch Hinata before she leaves for her mission." Kakashi said.

Sakura nodded. She'd told him on their way to the Hidden Mist what Naruto had remembered, and he seemed just as puzzled and confused as she was. This whole situation was getting way too out of hand, not to mention crazier and crazier each person they went to.

For a while, they just sat in silence. It was comfortable and surprisingly nice and the first time since the whole ordeal that they didn't feel awkward. Sakura felt a small tickle on her shoulder, causing her to shiver and clench her jaw. She looked at Kakashi and found that it was his doing; his fingers had brushed the skin at her shoulder. "Kakashi…" She whispered, more as a half-hearted warning to herself than to the culprit.

"Hm?" His fingertips didn't stop; they kept on softly trailing down to her elbow, up to her shoulder and the curve of her neck, occasionally twirling a lock of pink hair between his fingers.

"Kakashi, stop." She heard herself say.

"You sure?" He asked, and when he spoke Sakura was acutely aware of his breath at her ear. She shivered once more as she nodded her head, but couldn't keep her eyes from slipping closed. "You don't _look_ sure."

_Damn him. _She thought. _For making me want him so bad…_

She moaned lightly at his touch as his fingers left her neck to travel across her collar bones, his thumb caressing her throat lightly. His other arm moved off his knee to rest on the leg furthest away from him, his palm gently kneading the cold skin of her thigh. She tipped her neck slightly to the side, allowing him access to her neck as his lips touched it lightly; his mouth slowly following the curve of her neck up to her delicate jaw line. _"Sakura."_ He whispered into her ear, his mouth closing over the shell.

She swallowed nervously as her heart sped up purely because of the blissful sound of his low smoky voice. She felt her breathing become uneven and wanted to slap herself for allowing him to turn her on this much and just by touching her shoulder and whispering into her ear. She felt like putty in his hands.

She gasped when she felt his tongue on that small sensitive place behind her ear and ever so slowly, he trailed it down the side of her neck, before coming back up and placing a kiss on her jaw. The hand at her thigh slowly rose to her hip, where he dug his fingers in hard enough for her to groan in excitement. His other hand travelled to the back of her neck, where he threaded his fingers through her hair and tugged her head back lightly.

His lips pressed to her cheek in a soft, chaste kiss before moving to her temple to do the same thing. She kept her hands fisted at her sides, but her thighs squished together as the hand on her hip moved more towards her middle, sliding down to rest lightly on her lower stomach. His lips ghosted to her forehead, where his they pressed a kiss that lasted longer than the others, before trailing down her nose and kissing the tip.

Both of their breathing was uneven and this close Sakura could inhale as much of his cinnamon scent as she wanted. He smelled so good, felt so warm and it was only a matter of time before his lips pressed to hers. She wondered how soft his pouty lips were, how velvety his tongue was. She wondered how skilled he was at using it and groaned at the thought.

She looked at Kakashi weakly and made contact with his eyes. He was so close to her and was looking at her with a lustful expression she'd never seen on his face before. "Why are you doing this?" She asked, her voice feeling like she hadn't used it in years.

Sakura saw Kakashi's lips turn up at the corners in a sexy smirk, "I just really," He pressed another kiss to the tip of her nose. "Really," he lowered his lips to one corner of her mouth which she parted in anticipation. "Want to kiss you," He murmured, his breath fanning out across her mouth.

This was it. This was what she's been craving since she woke up to his naked body that one morning. This is what she wanted to know. She wanted to taste him.

Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips as his neared. She was overwhelmed by the delicious sugary smell of cinnamon and the anticipation for what was to come.

"Kakashi? Sakura?"

_No, no, no, no. Not now. _Sakura thought, her eyes, which she didn't realize had closed, snapped open at the sound of the voice. Kakashi let out a breath and closed his eyes tightly. Reluctantly, he slowly moved his hands from Sakura before moving his lips from hovering no more than half an inch above hers. He ran a hand through his hair and turned to glare at the voice.

Sakura let out a shaky breath and turned to look at whoever it was that had interrupted what would probably be the most memorable kiss of her life. "What do you want, Sai?" She asked, annoyed.

Sai was smiling, and it was that damn fake smile Sakura had both come to hate and love at the same time. "Yamato is annoying. He forced me to come apologize."

*.*

_Hinata grinned at Naruto as he opened the door for her, wrapping an arm around her waist. They'd left Kakashi's office in quite a mess and because of their intoxicated state did not care one bit. Hinata blushed deeply as Naruto leant down and pressed a sweet kiss to her cheek. _

_They entered the living room and wasn't at all surprised at the sight of Lee, Neji and Kiba playing cards with Akamaru leaning over Kiba's shoulder and Ino perched on top of Kakashi's kitchen counter with Genma between her legs. _

_At the sight of the young Hyuga and her blonde haired companion, Lee jumped to his feet with a goofy grin on his face. "Alas, my youthful companions have decided to grace me with their presence!" Lee stumbled over to Naruto, who looked at Hinata sourly, and wrapped an arm lazily around his shoulders. "Where, may I ask, is my youthful cherry blossom?" _

"_If you're talking about Sakura-chan, she's in the bathroom, but I wouldn't go in there if I were-"Naruto began._

"_Bathroom, you say?" Lee smirked, his bushy eyebrows rising hopefully, "This is the time I grab my eternal youth by the horns and confess! I must be swift. Naruto, Hinata," He looked at the couple, removing his arm from Naruto's shoulders, "Thank you." He said; as if they were the last words he'd ever speak to them._

"_Yeah… right. But Lee, she's with-"Lee disappeared before Naruto could finish his sentence, stumbling down the hallway in the direction of the bathroom, mumbling unintelligible things about youth. _

_Hinata giggled and tightened her hand in Naruto's shirt, causing him to smile down at her sweetly. "Hey Hinata-chan…" Naruto began, moving to stand in front of her to shield her from the view of the others. _

_Hinata's heart started to pound so fast in her chest she thought she'd feint, "Y-Yes, Naruto-kun?" Her stutter, not fully masked by the alcohol she'd consumed, had reared its ugly head, and it wasn't the first time that she'd wanted to get rid of it so that she could finally have a proper stutter-less conversation with the boy of her dreams._

_Naruto reached up and with his fingers lifted her bangs away from her forehead so that he could see the smooth milky skin of her beautiful round face. "You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life." _

_Hinata's heart stopped. Those sort of words were the kind that every girl wanted to hear, and they'd come straight from the only boy she's ever loved and will ever love. She felt her skin heating up and she was pretty sure Naruto did too judging by the contagious grin that spread across his handsome face._

"_N-Naruto…kun…" _

_She was silenced by an earth-shattering, heart-stopping, breath-taking kiss. _

Sakura shot Kakashi a sour look. _"Youthful cherry blossom?"_ She said, disgusted and embarrassed.

Kakashi grinned, she could tell by the crinkle of his only visible eye. "_I _think it's creative." He replied, words laced with sarcasm. He honestly thought Rock Lee was an idiot, it was common knowledge that Sakura hated to be described as her namesake. The only thing about her that tied her to her name was the colour of her hair. Kakashi knew all too well that she'd long since outgrown her sweet, little cherry blossom phase. She was a kunoichi now, a dangerous one.

They sat on a secluded bench, it was early in the morning and the sun had just risen. Sakura had just finished her night shift at the hospital and Kakashi had previously returned from one of the Hokage's many errands.

_Icha Icha _was perched on his lap; he'd been reading it while waiting for her and was just getting to the climax of the story when she'd arrived. He remembered grinning innocently at the look of disdain she shot the romance novel before returning the same look to him.

"And when did Hinata-chan say this happened?" Sakura asked, a yawn escaping from her pretty little mouth as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Kakashi did the same, yawning and stretching his arms over his head. "About a full two hours since Naruto saw us in the bathroom."

Sakura sighed, "I'm surprised you got that out of her. Normally, she's a timid girl, but get a little alcohol in her and she becomes…" A smile graced Sakura's lips, "Sex-crazed."

Kakashi laughed. He'd been surprised at the Hyuga heiress too, doubly so when Sakura had told her Naruto's recollection word for word. But, he never did keep tabs on the Rookie Nine except for his own team, so he guessed he didn't really know much about them aside from what he's heard from Sakura and Naruto.

The air became heavier as silence swept over them and it was obvious to Kakashi that Sakura was thinking about the almost-kiss they shared last night on the edge of the cliff. Hell, Kakashi was thinking about it too. He was _so close. _So close to finding out what she tasted like and felt like under his hands. But then that idiot Sai just _had _to interrupt.

Fucking Root, creating morons like that. Have they no shame?

Kakashi tried not to let the uncomfortable silence get to him and he picked up _Icha Icha _from his lap, contemplating on picking up where he left off, but thinking better of it. He wanted to talk to Sakura, not just about the whole mess they'd gotten themselves into, but really he just wanted to _talk _to her. He wanted to know how she was going at the hospital, if they've made any new developments in regards to the poisons and toxins she's been working on so diligently. He wanted to know if she was planning to stay at the hospital forever or if she wanted to join ANBU or something, she certainly had the talent for it. More importantly, he just wanted to know about _her_.

Of course, he wanted to know about her feelings towards him, because he certainly didn't know about his own and maybe having her clear it up for him would help a great deal.

But mainly, just about her.

Snapping his book shut, he turned to face Sakura like a man on a mission, but let out a tiny huff at her slumped form. As much as she tried to fight it, Sakura was slowly drifting off to sleep, occasionally jerking her body to stay awake. There were dark shadows forming under her eyes and her skin looked paler than usual. It looks like she'd been working a little _too _diligently.

Sighing, he pressed a hand to her shoulder, causing her to lift her head in alarm. "Hmm?" She mumbled tiredly, a yawn escaping from her mouth.

"You should be getting home, Sakura." Kakashi said quietly, his thumb rubbing absent circles into the skin of her shoulder, "You look like you're going to pass out any second."

Sakura looked at him lifelessly and yawned again, "That sounds like a good idea." She rose to her feet slowly and just as Kakashi rose after her to walk her home, she pressed a hand to his chest, smiling up at him languidly, "You should go home too, I doubt you look any better than I do."

Kakashi frowned, "Are you-"

"I'll be fine." Sakura patted his chest and then, seemingly without knowing, ran her hand up to his shoulder to trail her finger down his angular jaw line affectionately. "Go."

Kakashi sighed. This damn woman.

As Sakura walked away, so did Kakashi, occasionally sneaking glances at her over his shoulder. He walked to his apartment, his eyes trained on the ground thoughtfully, his favorite book tucked between his arm and torso. He guessed that getting to know Sakura would have to wait.

**AN: Sorry this probably isn't the most interesting chapter, ahah but it's 3 in the morning over here and I was so determined to get it doooooonnnnneee! Chuck me a PM or something if you guys have any questions 3 **

**heapscool **


	7. Lascivious

_Jesus Christ. Summer is getting fucking ridiculous. _Sakura grumbled silently, wiping away sweat from her upper lip and forehead. It was way too hot to even be conscious, let alone in the kitchen making tea for a certain silver-haired shinobi sitting in her living room.

_Why did he have to come today? And in that goddamn shirt… _

Kakashi was lounging on her couch, lengthy limbs outstretched and hanging over the cushioned arms. He'd opted for a more weather appropriate outfit in this heat. Instead of wearing the Konoha-issued flak jacket, thick dark pants and his trademark mask, Kakashi had decided on a black sleeveless shirt with the attached mask pulled to the base of his neck to reveal his face and thin low-riding pants. He still had on his hitai-ate, but it was pushed further up his forehead to reveal his Sharingan.

And damn, did he look good.

Sakura had to abandon the room as quickly as she could or else she would pass out from the sight of his muscled body in those tight-fitting clothes. She hated this effect he had on her.

And loved it at the same time.

She re-entered the living room, setting down two cups of steaming hot green tea and took a seat in the arm-chair next to the couch he lay on. She stretched and sighed contently, "I showed up at Shushuya at about 8.00 with Ino and hardly remember anything after 9.30."

Kakashi nodded, flexing his muscles unintentionally as he reached up to wipe sweat from the back of his neck, Sakura forced herself to look away. "I wasn't any better than you."

"So let me get this straight," Sakura blew on her tea, "From 10 till 11, Ino claims that we were uh," she reddened, "all over each other. Then, Naoka said that we were kicked out half an hour until closing time- 11.30- and we ended up at the training grounds."

Kakashi nodded thoughtfully, keeping up with Sakura's recollection of information they'd gathered over the past week. "And Naruto catches us in the bathroom in a… _compromising _position and leaves us there; he claims that to have happened at around 1.00." Sakura mumbled, frowning.

Kakashi's face slipped into an expression similar to her own, "That leaves an hour and a half gap between Neji and Naruto's fight and when Naruto caught us."

Sakura nodded. It was obvious they hadn't had sex in that hour and a half gap, but _something _must've happened then to explain why they were in the bathroom in the first place. "Right." She said, tipping her head back to fan her neck.

"According to the Hyuga girl, Lee went off to find his 'youthful cherry blossom'," Kakashi turned his head to grin at Sakura's sneer at her nickname. "About two hours after they saw us, so technically about 3.00, and according to Neji, they decided to find Lee at 4.15 and that was when Neji came into my bedroom and uh..."

Sakura cleared her throat, "Right, and we were in our underwear and it was clear that we had been… close to doing it."

"Right." Kakashi said awkwardly, watching her swipe at the sweat at the back of her elegant neck.

"Don't forget that Genma claims we played strip poker until 3.50, which explains why our clothes were on the floor." Sakura reminded him, blowing on her tea again but still not having consumed any.

Kakashi eyed his tea that Sakura had gracefully put on the coffee table in front of him and rubbed at his eyes, "Leaving at least twenty-five minutes that have gone unidentified. Do you think Lee saw anything?"

Sakura nodded, "Possibly. Lee is a lot more emotional when drunk, maybe walking in on us doing uh…" She looked at him from the corner of her eye and looked away immediately after making eye contact with him, she flushed and crossed one knee over the other, "not so chaste things, was why he left."

Kakashi completely agreed with her. Like he'd said before, Lee was an idiot and it wouldn't surprise him if he ran away crying after he saw Kakashi doing whatever with Sakura. He _was _the student of his self-proclaimed 'eternal rival' after all.

"Even so, that doesn't explain why we woke up naked." Kakashi mused aloud, picking his cup of tea from the table and blowing on it.

Sakura groaned, "And the worst thing is, no one would know why except us. Let's just hope that recounting the whole night with the others jogs at least one our memories." She pinched her thin singlet and pulled it away from her skin, airing it out and fanning down the neckline.

_What the hell is she doing? Is she aware of the effect she has on me for showing that much skin? _Kakashi grumbled darkly as he watched her singlet pull away from her body and then cling to it again, outlining her chest and stomach in the sexiest of ways. He had to bite the inside of his cheek as he ripped his eyes away from her to keep his cool, his mouth twitching as he did so.

"We should probably talk to Lee first; see his side of the story." She said.

"Tomorrow? He's at the training grounds every morning with Gai." Kakashi rolled his eyes, sometimes Gai's dedication was admirable and inspirational, other times it was just annoying and made Kakashi want to set his ninken on the green monster.

Sakura nodded, "Sure."

Kakashi tried not to wince at the still scalding hot tea that burned down his throat as he looked at Sakura. She was just as beautiful as she always had been and a pit in his stomach was forming. He gritted his teeth.

Since when did he get so worked up over a girl? And why did it have to be _Sakura? _He must've either done something to offend God himself or please him, with Sakura, he wasn't quite sure yet. For the first time in years, Kakashi was hesitant. He didn't know whether he saw her as a close friend or something more, but judging from his attraction and constant need to be around her, he was leaning towards the latter.

Could they ever be together? He supposed they could. He didn't think Naruto or the others would have a problem with it and he guessed he wouldn't either. But would she?

Despite being an open and empathetic person, Sakura was a little hard to read. He didn't know what she wanted from him. Was she still hurting over Sasuke or did she get over that years ago? Was she hurting over someone _else_ and found him as a… diversion of sorts?

Maybe he was reading her all wrong and she was just… an affectionate person?

No, there was no way he'd be mistaking it. After that night on the cliff, he was sure she was attracted to him. But was that all she wanted from him? A steamy little kiss and possibly more only for her realize it to be a mistake and not talk to him again?

It'd been a while since Kakashi was unsure of himself and having Sakura bring out all his deepest fears about allowing himself to _feel _just got him all worked up. And intrigued. He was thirty-three years old for shit's sake, and she was legal, right? Nothing was wrong, right?

"Ah shit!" Sakura hissed, setting her cup down hurriedly, causing the contents in it to swish and pool around the base. Kakashi set his tea down on the table and glanced at Sakura with a slightly amused expression.

Cocking his eyebrow, he said, "What?"

"I burnt my _fucking _lip!" She hissed angrily, pressing her fingers to her bottom lip and heaving an angry sigh.

Kakashi straightened and moved closer to her, reaching over the arm of both the couch and chair she sat in to grip her delicate chin, his fingers gently running down her jaw line.

Sakura stared at him with big green eyes, her lip aching and her eyes watering as a reaction. Swallowing up her anxiety, she grinned at him. "Going to finish what you started the other night?"

Kakashi gave her a slow sexy smirk, an expression she was slowly becoming used to the longer she saw him without his mask. His thumb ran across her chin, right under her bottom lip. "It depends."

"On?" She asked, sucking her lower lip between her teeth. She inwardly grinned as Kakashi's eyes followed her movements, narrowing slightly and darkening with lust.

"On if you want me to or not." He murmured, removing his hand from her face, only to place it on her bare shoulder. Slowly, she felt the sensation of his hand sliding up the curve of her neck, no doubt wiping at the sweat that lingered.

Sakura hummed at his touch as he threaded his fingers through her shoulder length hair, twirling it around his fingers before tightening his hand into a fist at the nape of her neck, all the while staring at her with that irresistible hungry look. Without knowing, she pressed her front tighter into the arm of her chair to lean in closer to him, she wanted to drown in his scent and warmth, no matter how fucking hot it was.

She watched him through hooded eyes as he brought his other hand up to her face, brushing a sweaty strand of pink hair away from her equally sweaty brow. For a moment she envied him, she didn't realize it was possible for someone to look so flawless, even with beads of sweat dripping down their forehead and cheek, until she saw Kakashi.

Ever so slowly, his lips started to move closer to her, but he didn't kiss her. Instead, he opened his mouth and bit down on the lower lip she'd sucked into her mouth a few moments before and pulled it out. He took her bottom lip and claimed it with his teeth, biting on it roughly and running his hot warm tongue across the still tingling flesh. The hand on her hair tightened and forced her face closer to his.

She let out a breathy moan. She was so turned on and he wasn't even _kissing _her! Not to mention he was hardly touching her.

With another long swipe of his tongue, Kakashi slowly pulled away fully, untangling his hands from her and sitting back in the sofa with a self satisfied grin. "All better?"

Blushing and left slightly disappointed, Sakura frowned. The answer was yes, the burn she had gotten herself on her bottom lip had subsided but now all that was left was the tingle of his teeth and tongue. It wasn't enough. Mustering up her courage, Sakura stood up from her arm chair abruptly, which seemed to have shocked Kakashi as seen in the slight widening of his mismatched eyes.

She made her way to Kakashi's position and pressed a knee on the couch beside his thigh, both her hands going up to rest on the back of it next to his head. His eyes were wide open and attentive, waiting for her next move. "Yeah, kind of." She said, before lowering her lips down to his.

Kakashi made a muffled noise of surprise as her lips pressed to his; soft and warm, yet rough at the same time. He didn't even move, he _couldn't _move. He hadn't thought she'd be the one to kiss him first and so he was stunned, his wide eyes open and his arms limp at his eyes. He didn't even respond to her kiss.

She pulled away, her eyebrows knotted into a frown and her lips turned down at the corners. Dejected and embarrassed, she began to rise to her feet, "I-I'm sorry… I shouldn't have-"

"Shut up." He breathed, hooking his index fingers into the belt loops of her shorts, pulling her roughly towards him and pressing his lips to hers. She fell onto his lap, her thighs pressed to the sides of his in a straddle. Her breasts were pressed firmly to his upper chest and her hands returned to the back of the couch beside his head.

When he kissed her it wasn't soft or chaste and full of innocent longing. No, this longing was the dirtiest of all types and caused the two to act like starved animals, groping at each other and groaning shamelessly as their tongues fought for dominance in a searing kiss.

The temperature in the room suddenly felt like it'd just risen a few hundred degrees and caused the two to break away panting. Kakashi didn't last long though, immediately, he claimed her neck with his lips, biting, licking and sucking on any skin he can reach. His fingers dug into the muscular creamy thighs that he loved so much, eliciting from her a breathy groan.

"_Kakashi…" _

At the sound of her voice, Kakashi felt his pants tighten and took no shame in the fact as he slid his hands up her thighs to grip her hips and pull her to his roughly, grinding into her. Sakura threw her head back and panted. His pants were already so thin and she could feel him hard on her own covered core, causing her to groan as she rolled her hips over his, her hands fisting in his silver hair as he devoured her throat and shoulders.

"It's really…" Sakura swallowed, her eyes shut tight and her lips letting out tiny little breaths as they rocked their hips together. "It's really um…"

Sakura felt Kakashi smirk against her shoulder and he pulled away from her, letting his head fall back onto the couch. "It's really what, Sakura?" He asked, staring at her through hooded eyes and long envious lashes. Slowly, he removed his hands from her hips and let them hover at her waist. He greedily drank in her appearance. Her beautiful green eyes were dark and clouded with lust and hunger, her head was cocked to the side to reveal her neck, glistening with a mixture of what he thought was sweat and his saliva. Her chest was heaving and her singlet was in disarray, her pink hair too. "It's really _what_, Sakura?" He repeated, voice barely above a whisper.

"_Hot." _She breathed.

Kakashi groaned and dropped his head onto her shoulder, his hands resting on her slender waist. "I think I know what to do about that." He said.

Sakura raised her eyebrows in question and gasped as he slowly lifted her singlet up to reveal her thin white bra, but not exactly taking it off. He felt his pants tighten more when he saw her pink nipples clearly visible through the white lace and straining against it, she shifted her hips so that his arousal was pressed more firmly into the apex of her thighs. She let out a loud, slow moan. "Holy shit."

He pressed his tongue to one of her nipples through the bra, the other rolling and being tugged at by his finger tips. She whimpered and the sound almost threw Kakashi over the edge. He thrust his hips upwards and was met by her meeting him halfway, he groaned. "S-Sakura, oh _fuck." _

She gripped his shoulders tightly and forced them to press against the couch. Kakashi's head snapped back, revealing his flushed face and dark eyes. She hastily ripped her singlet over her head and then reached behind her to unclasp her bra. Meanwhile, Kakashi reached behind his head and untied his hitai-ate, tossing it to the floor, all while maintaining lustful eye contact with Sakura.

Sakura's bra dropped and she was sure that she saw Kakashi's lips twitch as he stared at her breasts. His mouth watered at the sight of her like this, straddling him, bra-less and completely overcome with her need for him. "Take it off." She demanded, referring to his black shirt.

"Yes, ma'am." He gripped the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head, tossing it to the floor.

Hungrily, her hands roamed his muscles, her fingers running over the many scars he'd gotten over the years. He raised his hands to her stomach and traced circles with his fingertips at her navel. Feeling her shiver at his touch, Kakashi shifted on the couch so that he was lying underneath her.

He wrapped his hand around her neck and smirked at her, pulling her into a kiss that was so unlike the others but still held the certain ferocity and passion. His warm tongue slid against hers slowly, massaging until a small moan escaped from her. She sat up and rolled her hips up the length of his arousal, his hands moving to the sides of her breast, his thumb circling her nipples slowly. "Sakura…" He said.

"Hmm?" She rested both her hands on his chest and licked her lips purposefully as she stared at him.

His eyes moved from her tongue that was pressed against her bottom lip to her mesmerizing green eyes. "You taste like cherries." He said, his hands slowly moving from her breast to the top button of her shorts, popping it open with a quick flick of his fingers. Then, slowly he slid the zipper down and pulled her shorts open to reveal her white lacy underwear, just as equally see through as her bra. He slid his fingers into her shorts and pressed a long slender finger to her through her damp underwear. "I wonder what else does."

_Oh my fucking God, did he just say-_

"Hey Forehead, open the _fuck _up. Shizune sent me to come get you. She thinks you're dead!" There was a pause at the door, "Are you?"

_Un-fucking-believable. _

Sakura's eye twitched in frustration and anger as she glared at Kakashi, though her look of disdain wasn't meant for him. Kakashi looked just as annoyed at their interruption and jutted out his bottom lip at Sakura.

"Forehead!"

Sighing, she tried to rise from Kakashi's hips but only his hands kept her in place. She looked at him amusedly as he shook his head stubbornly, like he was a five year old child who didn't want to go to bed. "If you ignore her, she'll leave." He whispered.

Sakura muffled a laugh, "It's Ino, she's persistent. And besides, I'm late for work." She tried to rise again, but he gripped her hips even tighter and she fell back onto his hips, unintentionally rubbing against his arousal, causing him to close his eyes.

"Please." He said, cracking one eye open to stare at her.

"_Forehead!" _Ino drawled and banged her fist on the door.

Sakura gripped his wrists and pushed them up above his head, grinning at him wickedly before pressing a quick kiss to his lips. She used the short amount of time of when he was surprised to remove herself from Kakashi and zip up her shorts. She bent down and retrieved her singlet and slipped it on, Kakashi watching her and grinning as she did.

Ino banged her fist again and both Sakura and Kakashi could imagine how pissed of the pretty blonde was as she stood outside Sakura's apartment.

Flattening her hair, Sakura mouthed to Kakashi to stay where he was as she walked to the door. She opened it and grinned. "Sorry, I was just going over last minute things for our reports." Sakura quickly lied as she stared at her friend.

Ino stood with her hip cocked and her arms crossed in the hallway outside Sakura's apartment, nodding at Sakura's words. "Of course you were, honey. Now let's go, Shizune was about to have a litter." Ino smirked as she observed Sakura, "Ever heard of a bra? And why are your shorts unbuttoned?"

Kakashi, who was still lying on her couch, grinned at the situation Sakura had gotten herself into. "Oh-I was… I was just, there was this-"

"Mhm, whatever, let's go." Ino grabbed Sakura's wrist and toed her out of her apartment. "Bye Kakashi!" She yelled into the apartment as she slammed the door.

Sakura blushed and Ino snorted as they hear a lazy 'see ya' from Kakashi himself, who no doubt was pretty satisfied with himself at the moment.

_So embarrassing. _Sakura grumbled.


	8. Lee

"Oh, I see you've successfully seduced my perfect cherry blossom. Have you no shame?" Lee said, arms crossed as he stood menacingly in front of Kakashi, glaring at him with a force Sakura had never seen behind his eyes.

Kakashi looked up from his prized _Icha Icha _book with a bored expression, as if he stumbled across situations like these daily. Snapping his book shut, he regarded Lee with a cocked eyebrow. "Pardon?"

Lee's lip twisted into a frown as he pointed an accusing finger at Kakashi, "_You! _Oh the _audacity." _Lee returned his raised hand to rest at his hip, his face going red with rage as he frowned. "Now… Now I realize why Gai-sensei has declared you his rival," Lee spread his les into a fighting stance, "And as his disciple, I will follow in his footsteps." He raised his hands and took a deep breath. "Well? Come at me!"

Kakashi had two courses of action to choose from. Number one: Fight him and beat him. Number two: Leave his handling to Sakura.

_As appealing as that may seem, _Kakashi thought, imagining Sakura sweating in the tight black shorts and shirt she decided to torture him with today as she pounded Lee into a bloody pulp, _I would much prefer it if it was _me _making her sweat. _Kakashi's mind travelled back to the day before. He loved the sight of her topless on top of him, rocking her hips and groaning at his touch.

"_Fight me!" _

Kakashi then realized that he'd drifted off into his little fantasy, wondering how much further they would've gone if Yamanaka hadn't of interrupted. Sighing, Kakashi tucked his book into his pouch and raised his hands in surrender. "What are we fighting over, again?" Kakashi asked dryly, hoping to get even _more _of a reaction out of him as he smirked behind his mask, "I forgot."

"Why you little…"

"_Boys."_

The voice, Sakura's, held amusement as she reprimanded them, causing the two to turn and face the pink-haired girl. Her hair was up in a high pony-tail, exposing the elegant lines of her neck and curve of her shoulders, with few strands of hair coming down to stick to her flawless skin. "Kakashi-sensei, you _know _what we came here for. Stop teasing."

Something about Sakura in that outfit and scolding him with a faint smirk on her sweaty face aroused him. The fact that she'd added _sensei _to his name did happen to make him cringe inside, but at the same time, made his insides burn.

Sighing and taking his book back out of his pouch, Kakashi leant against the tree. He would've loved to give what the little brat was coming to him, but it seems that Sakura would handle it better than he would.

"Lee," She slipped on her best smile, "I heard you went missing the night Naruto made Chunin. That's very dangerous, I was worried."

Lee snorted, "I'm sure you were."

Sakura eyed Kakashi who appeared to be fully engrossed in his romance novel before raising her eyebrows at Lee, "What do you mean?" She asked, resting a hand on his arm.

Kakashi, however, was not as engrossed into the book as Sakura had originally thought. His dark eye narrowed at the sight of Lee's blush when Sakura touched him. _What is she doing? _He thought darkly, willing her to step away from the drooling boy. He glared at Lee and thought of all the ways to kill him with his bare hands as he watched Lee pat Sakura's hand.

"I…" Lee cast a wary glance over his shoulder at Kakashi, "I'd much rather tell you everything without _him." _

_That fucking little asshole, _Kakashi sneered behind his mask. Who did he think he was? Did he think that he could make a move on Sakura when he wasn't there? The _hell_ he will.

"Sure."

Kakashi's eyes were about to pop out his head. Did Sakura really just accept? What if-

No, Sakura could handle herself.

Kakashi watched the two walk away and scratched the back of his neck. What was happening to him? He was a grown man, for God's sake. What was he _doing _with his not even twenty year old ex-student? Had they gone further that time, what would've happened then? How would she have reacted to him?

He realized the tight flex of his hand when he felt the page crumple beneath his fingers. He was getting agitated and an agitated Copy Ninja wasn't the best thing in the world. He looked over to the pair only _just _out of his hearing range and watched as Sakura blushed just as furiously as Lee did as he recounted his tale to her. It was then that he realized the slight twitch in her eye, it was fast and barely noticeable, but he noticed it. Just like he'd been noticing everything about her lately.

He noticed that her posture was perfect until she was _sure _that no one was watching; but he was. He noticed the slight permanent bounce in her step and the natural sway in her hips as she walked. He noticed that she hated the colour pink and openly sneered at anything that was. He noticed that sometimes she smelled like coconut and other times like peaches. He was noticing so many things and hoped that the little eye twitch thing she did wasn't the last he'll discover.

Kakashi focused on Sakura's beautifully elegant face as she tried to cover the glowing shade of red with her hands. Lee rested a hand on her shoulder and patted it lightly, leaving it to linger longer than Kakashi would've liked. They stood like that, exchanging hushed words before Sakura's hands dropped and she laughed, punching him in the shoulder and nodding. Lee then grinned, waggled his eyebrows and waved her a goodbye, before looking over his shoulder and giving Kakashi the meanest glare his rival's disciple had to offer as he disappeared.

Sakura slowly made her way back to Kakashi, her blush slowly fading as was her embarrassment. "Well?" Kakashi asked, snapping his book shut.

Sakura rubbed her eyes before her face split into a sheepish grin. "It's official, Lee saw us."

Kakashi's eyebrows rose, "Doing what?"

Sakura laughed nervously.

It was ten minutes to four, _was the first thought that came to Lee as he opened his eyes reluctantly, the bright white light of the bathroom burning his eyes, blinding him temporarily. Groaning, he rose slowly from the tiled floor, wiping drool from his chin and cheek. It was clear that he'd fallen asleep. How un-youthful of him. _

_His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in a gasp. _Sakura! _He thought. He still hadn't found her; he must've fallen asleep before he could've. Was she okay? Did she already go home? _

_Skidding out of the bathroom and out into the hallway, Lee walked briskly and unstably into the living room, accidentally knocking over a picture frame and a glass full of the very alcohol that made him pass out in the first place. Making a mental note that he'll replace it for Kakashi later, he zoomed past Naruto and Hinata completely absorbed by each other and utterly distracted from the rest of the world, Neji who stood in the kitchen with his back turned, a glass of water lifted to his lips and finally Kiba who was playing with his trusty friend Akamaru. There was a door in his sight, one he had never bothered to check as it looked way too private, but his inhibitions were replaced by the need to find his cherry blossom and so, he pushed it open._

"_Sak-" His mouth dropped open in shock, or was it in preparation to vomit? He didn't know._

_Sakura lay on the bed, her body partially covered by the tiny scraps of lacey fabric she used as undergarments. She had her knees bent and her hands fisted around the wooden bars of the bed head that rocked and lightly hit the wall behind it._

He_ was on top of her. That silver-haired, Sharingan using rival of his master. Kakashi Hatake._

_Oh, even thinking his name made Lee's blood boil and caused his hands to tighten fiercely at his side. What did he think he was doing to _his _cherry blossom?_

_Kakashi was completely naked except for thin dark briefs and was peppering Sakura's barely covered breasts with wet kisses as he rubbed his hips against hers, his hand disappearing into the waistband of her thin underwear. _

_Sakura's hands tightened around the bars of the bed head as she groaned, "Fuck me, Kakashi-sensei."_

_Kakashi had begun to slide his body down her torso, his tongue tracing hungry patterns between the smooth valley of her breasts. At her words, he looked up at her, his uncovered and completely uncovered face would've surprised the bushy-browed man if it weren't for the position he were in. "Not yet, Sakura-chan."_

_Sakura looked angry as she locked her ankles around the middle of his back and thrust her hips up so they rubbed against his stomach. "Kakashi…" She said, sounding more like a warning than a pleasured sigh._

"_Do you know what patience is?" Kakashi grinned wolfishly as he returned his lips to her stomach, leaving light bruises in their wake._

"_Do you think I care?" Sakura half snarled, half moaned. _

"_Not at all." Kakashi said a cocky smirk on his face. _

_Lee couldn't take it. The love of his life was with another man. And not just another man, she was with _Kakashi-sensei. _Gai-sensei's biggest rival! This was just the worst._

_His heart felt like it was being eaten from the inside out by maggots or something just as creepy and disgusting. This was the worst night of his life. His eyes brimmed with tears as the clock struck four, Lee closed the door and sniffed, before disappearing down the hallway and out the front door of Kakashi's apartment._

_His mind went back to the picture frame and bottle of alcohol he'd smashed and vowed to repair for Kakashi. He changed his mind. Like _hell_ he'd replace them._

Kakashi snorted out a laugh but quickly sobered when he took note of Sakura's reddened face after recounting Lee's memory to him. He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, which only made him put his hands all over her even more, and grinned at her. "That doesn't mean we had sex. Neji said he found us sleeping at 4.15." He shrugged, "I don't know about you, but if we got into it, I have a feeling it'd last _a lot _longer than that."

Sakura's throat suddenly dried up. What? What did he just say? She felt her cheeks heat up and it wasn't due to the unbearable summer that had been attacking Konoha for the past three months. "I-I…B-but we-"

"I'm feeling a bit peckish, want lunch? My treat." Kakashi grinned at her embarrassment. Sakura was just so _fun _to toy with; she always had the best reactions.

Sakura snorted, a light pink eyebrow rose mockingly as she barked out a laugh. "Wait, you mean to say that _you're _going to pay for _my _lunch? Are you sure you want to go through with this, Kakashi-sensei? It's not too late to turn back now."

Kakashi rolled his eyes and pushed passed her, "_Ha ha. _Very funny, Haruno."

*.*

"Wait, so you two _aren't _together?" Shizune seemed surprised as she regarded Kakashi and Sakura with wide dark eyes. "But the girls at work… Ino said-"

"Ino's a gossip. And you know better than anyone that her information is 95% her own weird fantasies." Sakura laughed, discreetly swiveling around to sit properly in the booth instead of having her legs draped across Kakashi's lap.

"O-Oh, it's just that… God, this is embarrassing. It's just that you two looked so… _together, _you know?" Shizune shrugged and smiled at the two sheepishly, "Well, I suppose I should leave. I've made it awkward enough as it is. I'll see you at work tomorrow, Sakura-chan."

Nodding a goodbye, Sakura braved a quick glance at Kakashi, which was useless considering he'd already caught her and was smirking at her with his cheek propped on his fist. Rolling her eyes, she said, "What?"

"Did you hear that? We looked _so together." _He grinned, raising his glass of water to his lips. "Aren't you lucky?"

Sakura laughed, "Asshole."

Maybe they had looked 'together', or whatever Shizune had called it. She guessed the viewing public took Kakashi dabbing at the water he spilled on her thigh as a gentle caress or the twig in her hair he picked out and threw over his shoulder as a romantic gesture. Maybe they _did _look 'together' as she inspected the thin cut on his left shoulder he got from sparring with Naruto and maybe they _did _look 'together' as she draped her legs over his lap when he jokingly offered to massage her calves.

Sakura inwardly sighed in frustration. This whole thing with Kakashi was fucking with her brain. She had _no _idea how she felt about the guy. Well, actually she did. She _liked _him, that much was clear to her. She liked him so much that it hurt to walk past him and not be able to kiss him. But one thing she _didn't _know was how to go about it all. Not to mention, did he even like her back?

Well, that was silly. There had to be something there or else Kakashi wouldn't be with her right now. He wouldn't have kissed her back at her apartment and wouldn't have even flirted with her. But he was and he did, so what did that mean?

They left Yakiniko Q and Sakura waved him a goodbye, before turning on her heel and heading home. She stopped abruptly when she felt him appear at her side; one hand stuffed into his pocket while the other lifted up his hitai-ate and rubbed at his Sharingan. "What are you doing?"She asked, shocked.

Kakashi looked down at her. He was easily a head and a half taller than her and probably twice as wide, she had always been the smallest girl amongst her friends and even at school, save for Naruto who had started off as a twerp, though he'd shot up to be almost as tall as Kakashi. Damn him.

"Uh… walking you home?" He said, unsure of himself and of her. He placed his hitai-ate over his left eye once more and shot her a small smile. "Unless you don't want me to?"

Sakura shook her head, almost too quickly for her liking, "No!" She said, "No, its fine, walk with me."

Seeming comfortable in the silence that engulfed them, Kakashi and Sakura walked along the short path to her apartment building, their hands brushing against one another and their shoulders bumping as they did.

She wanted to hold his hand. It seemed like such a girly and twelve-year old Sakura thing to do that she almost dug a hole so she could hide in it. She didn't want to be that girl, and she didn't want him to remember the little brat he'd had the displeasure of teaching back in her Genin days. She wanted to be a _woman _to him. Older, mature, refined.

They didn't talk the whole way to her apartment building, nor did they talk when they climbed up the stairs to stop at the front door of her home. She was about to say her goodbyes before she escaped into her room and fixed herself a hot cup of tea to calm her growing nerves, when Kakashi stopped her.

He stopped her by gently curling his fingers around hers and caressing the back of her hand with the calloused pad of his thumb. Then, ever so slowly, he brought it up to his lips, his mask pulled down under his chin. He brushed his lips lightly across her knuckles, causing her breath to catch in her throat. Her cheeks flushed.

"T-Thanks for the food, Kakashi." She said, allowing a smile to grace her lips. She was so surprised that Kakashi had actually _stayed _for the bill and paid it too that she almost jumped up and slapped him across the face to make sure he wasn't playing around. But he did pay for it, and didn't seem the least bit displeased that he did.

"Anytime, Sakura."

His voice was low and very, very sexy. His singular eye boring into her viridian ones as he held her hand to his chest while he slowly tipped his head towards hers, his other hand snaking around the curve of her hips.

She hummed in pleasure as she felt his minty breath fan against her parted lips. She wanted to kiss him so bad…

"Oh, sorry dears, but would you excuse me?"

_Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me? _Sakura hissed inwardly. At least this unwelcome guest had manners, unlike Ino.

_Every damn time! _They were _always _interrupted, could they not have _one _moment of peace where they could get it on and _not _be stopped half way through by different people?

Kakashi looked just as annoyed as he dropped his head onto Sakura's shoulder, using his hold around her hips to move them out of the way so that the little old lady Sakura recognized as Mrs. Kanzaki, her next door neighbor, could pass.

"_Every time_," she heard him mutter agitatedly into the sensitive spot where her neck met the elegant curve of her shoulder, Sakura sighed and rested her hands on his shoulders, stepping away from him reluctantly.

"I'll see you later, Kakashi-sensei." She smiled at him as she fished in the back pocket of her shorts for her keys and unlocked the door. "Bye."

"Bye." He said, almost like a groan as he let his head fall back onto the wall behind him. Sakura closed the door behind her so that she was safely in the confines of her own home; she pressed her back against the wall beside the door and sighed.

Next time, they _won't _be interrupted.


	9. Kiba

**Super sorry for not updating. School is kicking my ass once again, not to mention I'm half dead from being sick this week! Thought I'd write a chapter instead of studying for my exam tomorrow ahahha anyway, hope you like it! It's a pretty quick chapter by the way, sorry to disappoint :(:(:(:(**

**Disclaimer: If I owned any of this, I'd be the happiest girl in the world. Which I'm not, unfortunately :( **

***.*.***

Turning the corner, Sakura pulled her hair up in a messy bun with a sour expression on her face. It was so damn hot, and the last place she thought she'd be was at the hot springs. And yet here she was, no thanks to Ino.

"Drop that fuckin' look, Forehead. Us girls need a little relaxation every once and a while." Ino's face split into a wide, self-satisfied grin. It had taken an hour to convince the pink-haired kunoichi to attend their girl's day out, like she used to.

Sakura, instead of looking at her toes, faced Ino with the same expression. "I just want to go _home, _Ino. You _know _how much work Tsunade's been dropping on top of me lately, I'm just busy with reports and-"

"And Kakashi?" Ino rolled her eyes, but grinned nonetheless. She liked that her best friend was finally getting somewhere with a guy she liked, seeing as the last one turned out to be a little bit evil and psychopathic.

Sakura's face immediately reddened as she looked away from Ino's intense blue eyed gaze, "What makes you think that?" She said, feigning casualness.

"Speak of the devil_." _

"What?" Sakura whisper-yelled, her eyes going wide as she tried to force down the blush that assaulted what felt like every inch of her pale skin. Slowly, she scanned the massive group of boys heading in their direction, laughing and pushing and shoving like teenagers. Sakura could make out the faces of Naruto, Kiba, Shikamaru and Shino, but the rest were too far behind to tell.

At the front of the group was a shirtless Genma and under his bare arm was a tight black wife-beater clad Kakashi, sporting an annoyed glare.

"Wow, he's got _really _nice arms." Ino said.

"I know." Sakura grinned lazily, as if in a daze.

"I was talking about Genma." Ino rolled her eyes and rested her hand on Sakura's back, shoving her forward.

"R-Right, so was I." Sakura laughed nervously, before kicking herself over saying something so stupid when she knew that Ino could see straight through her. Ino didn't say anything, but she shrugged and grinned smugly at her pink-haired friend.

"Hey you." Genma greeted Ino with a lustful smile on his face when we reached them, "Long time no see."

Ino fluttered her long dark eyelashes, "Well, aren't you lucky."

Sakura was glad to be distracted from Genma and Ino's little exchange when she felt Kakashi's warm hand on the skin of her lower back, he'd slid his hand up under her shirt and was drawing circles on her spine, making her shiver. "Hey."

She inwardly grinned at the husky voice at her ear. "Hey," she replied.

"I didn't expect you to be here." He said, his index finger hooking around the belt loop of her shorts. "Not that I'm complaining." She could see the faintest smirk on his lips, making her grin in response.

"Girls day out, actually. You? Didn't know you were such a fan of fun." Sakura tilted her head upwards to meet his beautifully mismatched eyes. "Not that I'm complaining, of course."

Kakashi let out a quiet throaty laugh, "I'm only a fan of you, Sakura-chan."

Sakura snorted back a laugh and focused on Genma, who was watching their quiet exchange with bright mischievous eyes. "Aside from his obvious obsession with you, Sakura-chan. Kakashi here came for one thing and one thing only," Genma reached into the back pocket of his pants and pulled out a book with a bright orange cover. "Behold."

A pleasant smile crossed Sakura's features as she imagined Genma, who was at least a few inches shorter and skinnier than Kakashi, bolting through Konoha with all of his best-friend's prized possessions in hand while Kakashi himself chased after him. Perfect.

A low growl erupted from the depths of Kakashi's throat as he kept his eyes trained on the _Icha Icha_ book. _"Genma."_ Kakashi said seriously as he looked at his grinning friend.

"_Genma." _He mocked, wrapping an arm around Ino's shoulders. "Come, Kakashi. The others are already starting without us."

Kakashi frowned but followed as Genma kissed Ino on the forehead and then let her go. Genma then wrapped an arm around the bulk of a reluctant Kakashi's shoulders, leading him down to a door that said 'Males'.

Laughing, Sakura shook her head. "I'll go get some drinks." She told Ino.

"Sure, whatever. See you inside."

They parted ways and Sakura briskly walked to the vending machine around the corner and was surprised to see Akamaru round the corner at the same time. Akamaru barked and a hot wet tongue brushed against her cheek, making her smile.

"Keep your tongue to yourself, Akamaru." Kiba grinned, his pointed canines glinting in the gold light. "Sakura, nice to see you." He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a friendly kiss on the cheek.

"You too, Kiba, you too. Haven't seen you since…"

"Since Naruto made Chunin? Yeah, I've been gone since then- tracking mission." Kiba shrugged with his carefree grin still on his face. He popped open a can of soda and drank greedily from it, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He held out the can to Akamaru, who licked up the contents around the rim excitedly.

"Good for you, Kiba." She grinned, absently placing her hand on Akamaru's head to scratch between his fluffy white ears.

'_Since Naruto made Chunin….'_

It made her think what Kiba might've seen that night, if he saw anything at all. But what if it was embarrassing? Sakura blushed at the thought. It's not like she hadn't asked all her other friends the same thing, maybe it was all just getting to her.

"So… you and Kakashi, huh? That's…. unexpected, to say the least." Kiba took another drink of his soda. "I-I mean, not being rude or anything, but-"

Sakura always liked Kiba. He was nice and funny and definitely quite cute, definitely worth all the attention he gets from the girls of Konoha and lately, every other village he'd gone to for missions. He was growing up, but he was still Naruto's funny annoying little right hand man.

"Don't worry about it. And no, not that I don't want to… well not that I want to, to begin with. It's… complicated. Something happened at his place that night and I-"

"Don't remember it? Yeah, Ino was telling me." Kiba grinned, "I'll tell you what I remember, if it'll help."

_Goddamn big mouthed pig! Can't she keep anything to herself? Ugh._

Sakura smiled at Kiba with a deep scarlet tinge to her cheeks. This was so embarrassing. "Go ahead."

"Alright, all I remember is…"

_At this point, Kakashi's house reeked of cigarettes and alcohol. They'd only arrived fifteen minutes ago and it was already to a point of no return. Naruto and Lee had their arms around one another, singing to the top of their lungs a song they must've made up on the spot and Hinata and Ino were whispering and giggling like girls do. _

_Everyone had already left; Kurenai to attend to her son whereas Choji, Shikamaru, Shino and Tenten left to catch some shut-eye before their big A Rank infiltration mission into Stone. This left the crazier and much, much drunker half of the group at Kakashi's; Kiba (and Akamaru), Hinata, Naruto, Neji, Sakura, Lee, Kakashi and Genma. _

_Ino cheered as she held up her shot glass and downed its mysterious contents, wrapping an arm around and even drunker Genma and placing a fat slopping kiss on his cheek. "Best night _ever!"

"_Hell yeah!" Sakura shouted in unison with Naruto as they pumped their fists and drank to their hearts content._

_Kiba grinned and chugged another bottle of who knows what and watched Genma and Kakashi have a drunken exchange of laughs and jokes. Kiba wasn't really as close to those two as the rest were, but they seemed just as young as they were, despite being at least over a decade older. _

_But something irked him about Kakashi. _

_He's known the guy for years and still hadn't seen his face. How does he drink? How does he eat? Is there a little flap he lifts up to shovel food into his mouth? And more importantly, _why _does he wear the mask? Why! Sakura and the others had a bet going that it was because of a mole or buck-teeth or something, but nope. That's not what Kiba thought when he was talking to Ayame the other night who prattled on and on about Kakashi's handsome face. Hell, according to her, even Teuchi swooned. _

_Shrugging and taking a sip out of another random bottle, Kiba scratched a sleepy Akamaru's head. "Tired?" He asked, to which Akamaru only whimpered in response. _

_Suddenly, there was a huge thud and Kiba looked up to find Sakura on the floor, giggling like mad and throwing out slurred curse words into the open air. Aside from him, no one seemed to notice. They were all in their own little drunken worlds. No one except Kakashi, who was kneeling at her side in seconds, shoulders shaking as he laughed down at her body sprawled out across the floor. _

"_Ka…Kakashiiiii-sensei!" Sakura squealed, "Bathroom. Now." _

_Kakashi shook his head and said something in response, something Kiba's enhanced hearing couldn't pick up after the amount of drinks he'd had. Kiba watched as Kakashi held out a hand to Sakura who took it sloppily. _

"_Wow, you've got really nice hands, Kakashi-sama." Sakura grinned._

Sama? _Kiba thought. Something told him that Sakura would be embarrassed about that._

_Kakashi looked just as surprised and amused at the honorific, but he wrapped an arm around Sakura's slender waist and crushed her to his side. "C'mon, Sakura. Let's get you to the bathroom."_

"_Are you going to ravish me in there, Kakashi-sama?" Sakura asked drowsily._

_Kakashi laughed as he led her to the other end of his apartment. "Maybe."_

"Oh my God, please stop." Sakura said, her entire face a deep red from embarrassment. "I can't take it. _Sama? _Really, Sakura?" She groaned, the last part mostly to herself.

Kiba grinned, "I knew you'd be embarrassed. I contemplated leaving that part out, but I couldn't bring myself to do it."

Sakura groaned and slapped his arm, "You're horrible." She grinned despite her embarrassment, "I'm leaving." She shoved past him and rounded the corner towards the vending machine.

"Yeah, whatever." Kiba laughed, "Come on, Akamaru_. Sakura-sama_ has to cool down."


End file.
